


Pictures in Fogged Glass

by litra



Series: Broken Mirrors Verse [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Comic-Con, Dream Sex, Grace Bonds, Grace Sex, Leviathans, M/M, Prophetic Dreams, Prophetic Visions, Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-12 03:40:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3342203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam was taking things one day at a time. His relationship with Gabriel was going well and Kevin was taking things better then he had any right to. With Dean and Cas still AWOL it was probably a good thing that tracking down the leviathans and rebuilding the hunter network kept him to busy to think.</p><p>Part two of the broken mirrors verse, but can be read on it's own.<br/>Summery of part one inside for those who don't like the themes in that one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story picks up right after Broken Mirrors. I’d recommend people read that first; but I know it has some themes that can set people off. With that in mind here’s a summary.
> 
> Broken Mirrors:  
> Gabriel was in the casa erotica DVD the whole time. When Sam was going through Dean’s things after exploding Dick, he put the disk in, not knowing what it was. Gabriel pops in and tries to comfort Sam while getting a rundown of everything that happened. He sticks around while plugging himself back into the universe and ends up getting poisoned since the SucroCorp stuff is still in the food. By the time he’s back to being himself, his power levels have taken a serious hit. Sam and Gabriel decide to use Famine’s ring to get the poison out of the food. The ritual is kind of hard on Sam and Gabriel uses the rest of his power to help Sam come back to himself. They finally stop dancing around each other. In the process Sam helps Gabriel regain a little bit of his power. They go pick up Kevin and hit the road.

 

Kevin found it surprisingly easy to sleep in the back of the Impala. Sam had tossed him a sweatshirt to use as a pillow. After a week of running and hiding from Crowley and his demons, knowing that Sam was there was enough to let him feel safe. Kevin had spared a brief thought to who and what Gabriel was, and where Dean had ended up before letting the movement of the car pull him under.

His dreams were vague. Trees and shadows and he had the sense that someone was calling out, but didn’t know who or what they were searching for. Even in the dream he was too tired to care. He didn’t wake up until Sam shook his shoulder some time the next morning.

 

<><><>

 

Sally’s was the only place that served breakfast in the small town they had stopped in. Gabriel opened the back door for Kevin who yawned and tried to stretch out the kinks from sleeping in a moving vehicle. With the recent chaos Sam and Gabriel had caused in Chicago Sam had opted for driving through the night. Gabriel was keeping an eye on the kid. The instinct to protect a prophet of the lord coming to the forefront. Not that he was going to let it distract him from breakfast.

The diner had a home comfort decor, and apart from a pair of old men drinking coffee at the counter Sam, Kevin and Gabriel were the only patrons. A plump matron had taken their orders, delivered their food and then left them to tend to themselves.

Gabriel looked down at his fruit salad. It wasn’t a very impressive fruit salad. It was really just a bunch of cantaloupe, with a few slices of kiwi and a few grapes thrown in. It didn’t even have strawberries. What kind of fruit salad didn’t have strawberries? Needless to say there was no whipped cream either.

He sighed and let his shoulders droop another inch. He hadn’t had many occasions to employ a puppy dog face before he met Sam, but since the hunter was basically a giant golden retriever, Gabriel figured he was learning from the best. He looked up at Sam from beneath his hair, eyes big and lip slightly pouted.

The fruit salad was one of three options on the small diner’s menu that Sam had deemed safe. The other being a spinach salad and some soy tofu thing that even Gabriel in all his cosmic amazingness couldn’t figure out. Kevin and Sam had both opted for the salad, but Gabriel was getting sick of them, after a week of waiting for the Sucro Corp products to be removed from shelves.

Sam glanced up at Gabriel and raised one eyebrow. He looked unimpressed.

“Sam.”

“It’s healthy.”

“But Sam…” Gabriel knew he sounded about as mature as a five year old but he drew out the name anyway. It just earned him the ‘You are being immature and I am not amused’ bitchface. “I could just.” He raised two fingers to snap.

Sam reached across the table closing his hand around Gabriel’s. And now he was faced with the puppy dog eyes, and Sam really was the master.

He signed again and let his hand relax. “Fine.”

It wasn’t that Gabriel really wanted to use his magic, or really wanted a better fruit salad. He’d been making little gestures like that since Sam had made him promise not to use his powers anymore. If he didn’t Sam started asking about it, and Gabriel didn’t want the moose to think he was hiding anything, especially when he wasn’t. Since he’d hooked up with Sam he wasn’t exactly scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as power went anymore but he still didn’t have anything to spare. Sam didn’t know that though. Sam had no idea how close he’d come to truly falling.

Gabriel stabbed a piece of cantaloupe and ate it sullenly. It wasn’t actually that bad, not too hard or too soft, but it was the principal of the thing.

“So, what’s our next step?” Kevin asked. He was taking all this surprisingly well.

Sam considered, “The Leviathan. We need to keep an eye on the Demons as well but after everything, I’m betting Crowley will cut his losses. He’s going to want to secure his own power right now, see who comes out on top up here, before making his next move.”

“Great, so we only have to worry about dealing with the unkillable monsters.” Kevin pushed his salad away.

“We killed Dick. They’ll be floundering right now. This is our best chance to kill as many of them as we can, before they have a chance to go to ground or rally.” Sam had his earnest ‘we have to try’ face on. “There’s at least one weapon that can kill them. We’ll have to sneak back into Chicago to get it though….”

Gabriel snorted, looked from one human to the other, and rolled his eyes. He stuffed another chunk of cantaloupe into his mouth and spoke around it. “Why would we need that stuff?”

“To stop them?” Kevin asked as if that was obvious.

Gabriel swallowed and snorted. “You killed the Alpha. It’ll be a piece of cake to kill the others.” That got him stares from both the humans. “You don’t know much about Alphas, do you?”

“Apparently not as much as I thought.” Sam sighed and made a gesture for Gabriel to go on.

Gabriel chewed another chunk of fruit thoughtfully then took a breath. “Okay, Alphas are the first of a breed, right? They are the template for all the others, and that comes with a few perks. They’ve got the mind link with all the kiddies. They’ve got all the stuff the regular beasties have only supercharged. Except that goes both ways. The Alpha gets a bunch of minions and the rest of the herd feed off the energy of the Alpha.

“Like take Lilith, she was the first Demon, the Alpha. Before you killed her Demons were a big deal. Azazel ran around for years with one of the best hunters in history on his tail and no one could even get a bead on him. Before the end of the world demons were the big bad, and you were a total badass if you took one on and lived. No way to even kill them. Exorcism was your best bet, and if you managed that you were a lucky dog. Then you killed Lilith and the whole game changed. How many demons have you killed since? Just like, stabby stabby dead: easy. Same deal for Dick. All the old tricks will be a lot more effective now. Might have to experiment a bit but trust me, you’re not going to need a ceremonial bone.”

They both watched him for a few minutes.

“Are you telling me I did all that translating for nothing?” Kevin finally snapped.

“What? No. None of this would work if you hadn’t decoded how to kill the Alpha.” Gabriel turned in his seat and put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder. The air around them settled and for a moment Gabriel let the archangel side of himself take the front.

“You did well.” Instead of the usual mocking edge, Gabriel’s words held weight and glory.

Kevin nodded and blushed in a daze, as if he hadn’t been prepared for that attention to be directed at him. Then it was gone and Gabriel was back to pondering his fruit salad.

“You really are an angel.” Kevin blinked as he got over the intensity. 

“When I want to be.” He grinned and selected his next piece of kiwi.

Sam took a drink and leaned forward. “Okay, so we’ll need to capture a leviathan and do some experiments. Once we know what can kill them, we can spread the word.”

“We should also set up a home base.” Gabriel threw in. “I’d rather not try to deal with a leviathan in some motel room.”

Sam considered his options on that front. “The cabin won't be any good. Crowley knows about it, and Bobby’s place is gone.” He rolled a shoulder. “I don’t know. We might have to stake out a new place.”

“And after that?” Kevin was mostly looking at Sam but his eyes flicked back to the angel briefly.

They both knew what Kevin was really asking, but they couldn’t give him the comfort he was looking for. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Sam said.


	2. Chapter 2

 

They drove south, down along the mississippi river towards the gulf. Every few days they’d pack up and head out, always on the watch for leviathan or demons or anything else that needed killing.

Kevin was actually really good at research which shouldn’t have been a surprise. Sam even gave in and let Gabriel buy the kid his own laptop since, in Gabriel’s words, “Sam got all pouty when he had to share.” Gabriel got distracted far too easily for the normal internet research but he had been around the block a few times. Talking to people came easy. Gabriel didn’t even have to read minds most of the time; everyone had some bit of gossip to share if you knew how to ask.

They picked up a likely hunt eight days after picking up Kevin. There were victims ravaged and at least one man missing. Sam was the first to point out that it could be a skinwalker or even a werewolf, though none of the victim's hearts had been eaten. Leviathan's didn’t exactly leave anything behind when they snatched someone, but it was the best lead they had.

The suburb where the attacks were taking place was on the outskirts of Greenville and had apparently been something of a dump until recently. A storm had wrecked the place three years back and it was only just getting back on it’s feet. The local paper was celebrating that three of the construction projects were on schedule to be finished before the local fair in a month.

Gabriel was itching for any bit of action by that point and wild animal attacks in the middle of suburbia fit the bill. The creepy old warehouse that had recently been converted into an only slightly less creepy community center also fit the bill, and best part yet: he got to do a little role playing with Sammy. Okay, so maybe it was just the sunglasses and suits rather than anything more interesting, but it still counted as eye candy.

They left Kevin parked at one of those new age coffee shops that conveniently came with free wi-fi; the public location combined with a few hex bags made it relatively safe. Meanwhile, Sam and Gabriel headed out to interview the neighbors.

Sam pulled the impala up next to the curb in the appropriate neighborhood. Then stopped before they could get out of the car. “Gabriel?”

“Yes kiddo?”

“Can you, when we go in there--” Sam stopped and rubbed the back of his neck. “Just let me do the talking okay? Talking to witnesses, you have to be professional and…”

“Got it Sammykins, no funny business in front of the norms.”

Sam offered an apologetic smile, then pulled on his ‘I am a serious professional’ face and got out of the car. Gabriel took his own deep breath before the plunge. Sam’s lack of confidence in him stung but he could understand it. He’d been channeling more of the trickster recently; now he donned the surety of the archangel. His shoulders fell into parade rest, as his wings settled against his back unseen.

The minute they stepped onto the porch, barking started up from inside. Sam knocked on the door and held out a laminated ID when it was answered by an elderly matron. “Ms. Brown? My name is Sam Rodgers and this is my partner Gabriel Newman. We’re with Fish and Wildlife, looking into reports of some animal attacks in the area. Do you have a few minutes?”

“Yes of course, come in.”

She gestured them in and then started berating the little terrier when it attempted to eat Sam’s shoelaces. The trickster in Gabriel was falling over laughing, and ready to wrap himself around Sam because that was just too darn cute. He anchored himself more firmly in the archangel side of his personality and accepted a glass of ice tea.

 

~~~><~~~

 

“Now your husband called the police about an animal getting into the yard about a month ago, can you tell us what happened?” Sam was leaning forward and he had a notepad out, carefully writing down everything she said.

Gabriel found his attention drifting. Ms. Brown had picked up the terroir and held it on her lap. The dog was putting up with it rather well considering the usual temperament of such creatures. There was a tag on the little harness he wore. It proclaimed him to be a service animal and his owner, the woman, was in danger of seizures. Gabriel’s eyebrows came down and together. Looking at the woman more carefully he could see the way the blood wasn’t flowing properly to her brain. A spare thought and he saw the prayers she’d made every night since the doctor had told her there was nothing they could do but wait.

“Gabriel?” Sam was looking up at him.

When had Gabriel stood up? He shook his head. “May I use your restroom?”

Sam quickly hid his surprise. Ms. Brown nodded and directed him down the hall. Gabriel locked the door behind him and leaned against the sink. Glancing at his reflection, he flinched at the slight glow to his skin. It was nothing a human would notice, but it was there. It was so much easier to reign in the trickster, especially when being the archangel meant helping people.

He splashed some water on his face.

When Gabriel returned to the living room Sam was wrapping things up. He sent Gabriel a concerned look but waited until they were back in the car to say anything.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Gabe--” and there were the puppy dog eyes, fuck.

“Nothing, she was just sick, and the angel in me wanted to help. Gabriel watched Sam’s expression rather then meeting Sam’s eyes.

Sam looked confused. “And that’s a bad thing?”

It was a bad thing when even doing that much magic would send up a flag to their location and declared that he was still alive to every one of his siblings. It was a bad thing when he was barely in control of himself because he was so low on magic and one slip of would mean high tailing it back to heaven and abandoning his favorite hunter. He’d made a promise.

“No, Samsquash, just nothing I could do to help.”

Sam nodded. “There’s two more people we could interview but we also need to take a look at the scene.” He looked to Gabriel. The angel shook his head. He was no longer in the mood to play investigator but it wasn’t like they could just put it off until he was in a better mood.

“Na, it’s okay. Let’s go talk to those people.”

Gabriel was in a daze for the rest of the afternoon, Despite everything Sam did to pull him out of it.

 

<><><><><>

 

Sam guided Gabriel over towards Kevin’s table. It was evening and apart from a group of high schoolers and themselves, the place was quiet, the after-work rush having already come and gone. Gabriel plopped down into a chair and started tearing a paper napkin apart. Sam sank into his own chair and let out a breath.

“Anything?” Kevin asked, looking up from the laptop.

Sam shook his head. “I'd say it really was a wild animal but there's no sign of it other then the attacks.” He pushed the interview notes across the table so Kevin could take a look.

“It’s not a leviathan. I’d say hellhound but it’s not going after people really, mostly animals, and there’s no sign of anyone getting a sudden windfall ten years ago. Could be a Skinwalker but the motivation is beyond me.” Sam went on.

“So not a ghost then?”

Sam’s eyebrows came together. “Umm, don’t think so. Why?”

“Well…” Kevin shrugged. “All of the rebuilding, I thought something might have gotten disturbed. I managed to find some weird stories about a couple of the places that got torn down.”

Sam pursed his lips and the group fell silent as they all considered. Behind Sam a vaguely familiar voice asked for a large double caramel with soy milk and Sam winced. He’d made it abundantly clear what would happen if Kevin ordered anything but tea. To which Kevin had responded that just because he was asian didn't mean he had to like tea. He’d obeyed, But it wasn’t like Sam could stop anyone else from poisoning themselves.

The guy moved over to a table in Sam’s line of sight, and his hat made Sam do a double take. It was Bobby’s or at least pretty damn similar. Then he actually registered the face under the hat.

“Garth?”

The other man looked up and beside Sam, Gabriel craned his head to see.

“Hey, it’s Sam.” Garth’s voice was lazy and his normally slight drawl was exaggerated. “I haven’t seen you in like, ages.” Garth lifted his drink in a mock toast briefly before bringing it up to his lips.

“Garth, Stop!” Sam was out of his seat and around the table faster than he should have been able to, taking the cup from his bewildered fingers.

“That’s my coffee.” Garth protested weakly as Sam held it out of his reach.

“What’s in this?” Sam didn’t let up.

“Uhh, coffee?” Garth wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed but he was normally more on top of things then this.

Gabriel leaned over taking the cup from Sam. He sniffed at the steaming liquid and his expression turned pinched. “Yep, evil sweetener.” He put the cup down as far from himself as the table would allow. “This guy a friend of yours Sam?”

“Yeah, Garth. He's a hunter. Me and Dean have worked with him a few times. Garth, this is Gabriel and Kevin, they're...” Sam hesitated. “not hunters, but definitely clued in.” He eventually ended lamely.

Garth nodded, it took him a moment before he offered a hand. Kevin shook, but again Garth responded a little too late, as if he was lagging a beat behind the rest of the world.

“Um, are you okay?” Kevin directed the question at the newcomer but his eyes kept darting back to Sam.

Sam ran a hand over his face. He was fairly sure he already knew the answer but he asked the question anyway. “Garth have you been eating any Sucro-Corp products? Artificial sweetener, corn syrup. Anything like that?”

Again it took a moment for the question to register. Garth swung his head around, opened his mouth then hung there for a moment. “What? Uhhh, no wait, what was the question?”

Sam slumped back into his chair. “Right. Keep it simple. What have you eaten today?”

“Oh, well, jerky and chips and...”

 

~~~><~~~

 

Gabriel watched as Sam walked the new hunter through the last few days. He knew Sam would have done the same no matter what the ailment. Sam had done almost exactly the same for him when he'd had gotten himself messed up. Luckily Gabriel had the power to purge such a poison from his system, Garth didn't. Given the small increments that he'd been ingesting the poison, it would take four or five days for a full detox, and it wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

Gabriel could heal him.

By that point Gabriel knew the poison's signature and exactly what it would react to. Plus humans were easy to mess with. That was something both his personas had experience with. It would only take a little power. Just a little prayer. The poison wasn't a natural factor of the world since it'd been manufactured by leviathans, it didn't factor into the cycle of free will. He was within his bounds to act. A tiny prank, maybe he'd make the guy see weird colors for a few days or hear fantom music. Just a tiny drop of power either way.

The guilt from the woman earlier was nagging at him.

Gabriel leaned across the table speaking over Garth's drawl. “Okay, this is killing me. I mean it would be funny but once you've been there, it's a lot less entertaining. Sam? Think it'd be okay if I?” He nodded at Garth and wiggled his fingers. Sam didn't seem to notice the agitation he was failing to hide.

Sam looked between Garth and the angel. His jaw tightened and he nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, okay, just be careful.”

Garth was still talking as Gabriel sidled over to his table and got his attention with a hand on his shoulder. When Garth looked up Gabriel flicked him on the forehead.

The change was subtle but immediate. Garth reached up rubbing his forehead. He was already moving nearly twice as fast as before. His shoulders had gone back, with alertness rather than tension but it was there. Most notablyhis face went from lax to open and expressive.

“Hey, what was that for?”

“You're welcome.” Gabriel sauntered back to his seat, grabbing the discarded coffee and dumping it in the trash as he went. Inside he was quietly satisfied, purring like a cat. It felt good to use his power, deceptively easy. There was nothing stopping him other then that one small promise. Such a small thing to bind an archangel, a pagan god.

Sam gestured for Garth to join them at the larger table. Garth looked from Sam to his two companions and Gabriel could swear he could see the little hamster running on it's wheel behind his eyes.

“Don't strain yourself.”

“You. You're not human.” Garth pointed hesitantly at Gabriel, then his eyes swung towards Kevin and Sam. Sam let him work his way through it. “Magic?”

“Huh, the guy's got more than a goofy face. Don’t worry it’s the good kind of magic.”

“I'm human,” Kevin put in before Garth could react to Gabriel's comment.

Sam pulled the conversation back to the point. “What were you thinking? Sucro-corp had the food poisoned for ages. We've only just got people to take it off the shelves. You need to be more careful.”

Garth's eyebrows came together. “Is that what it is?”

“Of course.” Sam's voice came out like he was explaining something to a child or maybe to Garth as he had been before, high as a kite. “Dick was trying to turn the human race into mindless cattle for the leviathan.”

Garth's expression turned hard. Gabriel got the impression that it didn't happen often. “I know about the leviathan Sam, but you and Dean dropped off the map before letting anyone know what they were planning. Ever since Bobby died, the whole hunter community has been in the dark. I mean I've tried to pull things together but I knew there was something wrong. All the monsters are acting crazy again, like last year only this time there are twice as many ghosts and things like werewolves and wendigos are no shows. And then these past few weeks have been.... Look Sam I know you're trying to take down the big bad but the rest of us are flying blind here. I mean the last update I got was soapy water with lemon juice.” Garth shrugged.

Gabriel sipped at his water and let his eyes turn to Sam. Kevin, he noted, was doing the same.

“Borax.” Sam said softly. “Industrial cleaners. Burns them, like holy water for demons.”

Garth rolled a shoulder. “That's great. Any idea where Bobby's books are stored?” The two hunters' gazes met and apparently Garth came out the stronger of the two. It was his turn to use a soft, 'I'm sorry but these are the facts' tone of voice.

“While you and Dean have been off saving the world the rest of us have been trying to hold things together, and frankly, I could use your help man.”

Gabriel watched as Garth managed to hit all of Sam's gilt buttons.

“Like this case. I mean, I'm guessing you're working on the animal attacks too? A friend of mine Luis, He's a hunter too; got wind of this case but he was already working a job over in California. He called it in to me thinking I might know someone who could pick up the slack but.” Garth shrugged. “Everyone I know was either working something already or...” he trailed off with another shrug.

Sam just stared down at the table.

“Do you know anything about the case?” Kevin was the one to break the silence, voice hesitant.

Sam took a shuddering breath, visually rallying. “We should work together. I'll fill you in on everything and, and after... we'll...”

“We'll rally the troops?” Gabriel made it a question, wry humor lacing his tone. As if pulling together a secretive and violent community was no more trouble than going to the market for eggs and milk.

Sam smiled back gratefully and nodded. “So, talking with the witnesses didn't turn anything up, what else have we got?”

Pooling resources and discussing theories filled up the next three hours. When the coffee shop started closing down they moved back to the hotel, piling printouts over the small table. Garth and Kevin took the two chairs, laptops propped on their knees. Sam had the bed, his handgun disassembled on one side of him and more research laid out on the other. Gabriel had claimed the other bed, sprawled out on his stomach and largely ignoring the conversations going on around him.

“Skinwalker?” Garth said for the third time.

“Why are they only attacking people in that block then? There's a park with a running trail four blocks away. Plus, none of the people we interviewed could give a description of the creature. If it was a skinwalker people would have noticed a strange animal running around.

“I still say the ghost theory is worth a shot.” Kevin tossed in. “It would explain why not everyone was killed. It just wants to force people away.”

“A ghost with fangs?” Garth asked.

“Don't knock it mister tooth fairy, Teeth have been the most effective weapon on the planet for most of history.” Gabriel said without looking up from the magazine he'd found in the nighstand.

“Great, so the best theory we have is ghost dogs.” Sam looked over the papers in front of him, rearranging them in the hope that he'd see something new. “Is there anything in the local history to suggest demonic activity? I wouldn't put it past Crowley to have hellhounds guarding something even if they did attack regular people.”

Garth and Kevin both leaned over their laptops. Kevin found the info first.

“Before the storm the lot was owned by two families. The Butters family had a house that was destroyed. They apparently took the insurance money and moved across the city. No recent deaths, and the house was built less than ten years ago so unless it's something in the land itself.” he rolled a shoulder. “The other property was owned by a Thomas Winnsmore. He was a widower, retired, says here he bred hunting dogs. He won some kind of award.” Kevin looked up and his face was a strange contrast to the macabre subject. “He and four of his dogs were killed in the storm. Think he could be controlling them after death?”

Sam nodded slowly. “Actually that fits. Me and Dean had a ghost truck case once, don't see how dogs would be any different.”

“Ghost truck? I haven't heard that story yet.” Gabriel let his magazine fall to the bed beside him.

“Problem. Thomas Winnsmore was cremated.” Garth announced before Sam could explain.

“Any word on what happened to the dogs?” Sam asked instead. Garth shook his head. “Could be anything then, probably something still on the property since that's where all the attacks have been. Damn.” Sam started slotting his gun back together.

Gabriel looked around at all the thinking faces. “Hey, remind me what they built there.”

“A YMCA, I think. Some kind of community center.”

The angel considered, then nodded. “Should be able to consecrate the grounds then. Wont stay holy ground for more than a year or two but it would get rid of any spirits in the mean time.” He picked up his magazine again and flipped through the pages at random.”

“You can do that?” Kevin glanced around but everyone else was looking at Gabriel too so he clearly wasn't the only one thinking it.

“Sure. It'd be a bit more work for Sam or Garth but you're in tune with heaven already and I could do one in my sleep, Jewish, Catholic or Norse take your pick.”

“It's that easy?” Sam clicked the final piece of his gun into place without looking at it.

Gabriel leaned back settling into the pillows with his hands behind his head. He preened under Sam's gaze. “Four silver crosses, a gallon of holy water, a handful of dove's feathers and yes it is that easy.”

“I've got doves feathers back at my hotel, and we can hit the pawn shops for the crosses.” Garth offered.

Sam was still looking at Gabriel when he nodded. A smile, small but true, had reached his face for the first time since that afternoon.

 

<><><><><>

 

It was after midnight when Sam finally gave in and crawled into bed. Kevin had gone to sleep around 10:30 taking the bed Gabriel had been lounging on. The archangel waited until Sam was settled to crawl in beside him. They hadn't exactly been keeping their relationship a secret from Kevin. It was just that they'd never really hashed out what their relationship was.

Gabriel felt a bit guilty about that. A little seed, planted and growing each day that he didn't talk to Sam. He knew they'd get around to it. It just wasn't something he was looking forward to, and Gabriel had yet to think of a way to explain about recharging his magic without making it sound terrible. Ahh well, he'd figure it out. He always did.

Gabriel slipped under the covers and curled into Sam's arms. Sam was mostly asleep but roused enough to wrap his arms around Gabriel and pull him close. Gabriel nuzzled into his chest and sighed.

Time drifted. Gabriel didn't need sleep but he enjoyed the warmth and the comfort provided but someone he loved so close.

Maybe half an hour later he noticed a change in Sam's breathing and pulled himself out of the meditative state he'd fallen into. Sam was moving slightly. Just a little rocking motion and he pulled Gabriel closer as he tensed. Sam was dreaming.

Gabriel leaned into Sam's touch and his brain made the leap as to what was happening about the same time he felt a new pressure against his leg.

Sam was dreaming, and for once it was a fun one instead of a nightmare. Gabriel had been smoothing away the bad dreams ever since he'd come back but he didn't think he'd do that this time. He leaned in and pressed his head against Sam's it wasn't really all that much magic to slip into his dreams, they were so close and Sam was practically pulling him in.

The dream was a simple one. A motel room kind of like the one they were staying in, except the bed and sheets were of a much higher quality. Sam was on his back his legs spread. A figure, blurry and indistinct was between them, sucking him off. The details were all fuzzy. It wasn't a lucid dream or anything and Sam's subconscious couldn't seem to decide on what it wanted, only that it wanted stimulation.

Well, Gabriel could provide.

He brushed away the shadowy figure and settled himself in it's place, leaning in to lick up Sam's hard cock and kiss the tip. Sam looked down at him and his mouth moved but he couldn't figure out what to say, or maybe in the dream he just couldn't talk. Gabriel smirked.

"Did you think you could start without me? Sammy I'm hurt." With one hand he massaged Sam's balls while the other traced a line up the inside of Sam's leg. "You know you don't have to do this alone. I'm always open to giving you a hand." He squeezed Sam's cock.

All of a sudden the dream snapped into focus. The motel room solidified into a simple pattern of green and brown wallpaper with a thick blue carpet.

"There we go. Welcome to the party." Gabriel leaned forward to kiss his hunter. Sam pulled back from the kiss with a lazily puzzled expression after a moment.

"What?"

"Dreaming Samster. Had to pull your mind into lucidity or you wouldn't remember the fun, and we can't have that." He squeezed Sam's cock. Sam let his head fall back and moaned. In the dream state he didn't seem to care what he looked like or sounded like; it was all expression and instinct. It was like he was high and Gabriel's ministrations only exaggerated it.

Gabriel bent again and wrapped his lips around Sam's erection. In the dream they didn't need lube, there was no pain as Gabriel moved down and slipped a finger inside him. It was slow and hot and one act blended into the next. Sam's mind wanted and Gabriel fished out the thoughts before the part of Sam that was actually controlling the dream could act.

He was literally fulfilling Sam's desires as soon as he thought of them. Sam wanted more and he added another finger then a third. He wanted that tightness on his cock so Gabriel slid forward and let Sam fuck up between his thighs. He wanted Gabriel to kiss him, steal his breath and give it back to him, and Gabriel leaned forward to do just that.

Then Gabriel took control guiding Sam higher. Taking all those elusive fantasies and picking out the best bits, showing them to him in technicolor and full three-sixty sensation.

Sam could do nothing but fall back bear his throat and moan. Back in the real world Gabriel dipped below the covers, and slipped the sweatpants Sam was sleeping in down his hips. He sucked Sam's cock into his mouth just as he sank onto Sam's cock in the dream.

The sensations lined up and overloaded Sam's brain. Gabriel found himself thrown out of the dream as Sam woke, the power of his orgasm emptying out of the hunter and Gabriel gladly pulled it into himself. He licked his lips, then licked the last dregs off Sam's wilting erection. Only then did he crawl back up into the hunter's arms.

"Gabriel?" Sam's voice was sleep fuzzy and he didn't seem to quite know where he was.

"Shhh." Gabriel whispered and kissed him lightly before nuzzling into the warmth of Sam's chest.

From the other bed Kevin rolled over and pulled a pillow over his head.

 

<><><><><>

 

Garth swung by their motel room the next day after he had collected the few spell components that they didn’t already have on hand. It was nice to have a distraction given that Kevin had been quietly glaring at Gabriel all morning and Sam started blushing whenever he noticed.

Garth also came baring doughnuts, which was never a bad move in Gabriel’s book. Sam couldn’t even object because the box boasted the logo of one of Sucro-corp’s competitors. Between his pastries and the spell Gabriel claimed the small motel table, leaving the hunters to lounge on the two beds.

The spell wasn’t overly complex. The real trick was getting the proper ratios in the spell-bags. Gabriel wrote down the latin, then wrote it out again phonetically and walked them all through it until everyone had it memorized. Everyone was a professional about it, even Kevin who had never done anything like this in his life. Then again, after the king of Hell, one little poltergeist wasn't much of an intimidation factor.

When everything was prepared Gabriel spoke. “Best way to handle this is for each of us to come at it from different sides. The spell bags need to be buried at least two feet deep as close to the corner of the property as you can manage. If we’re right and this is some kind of specter, then they’ll be able to sense it and probably attack; so the faster we get the bags in place the better.”

Sam picked up one of the finished spell bags and considered it. “Two feet isn’t bad but trying to dig and defend yourself can get rough. Maybe it’s better if we go in as teams of two rather then one of us taking each corner.” The look he shot in Kevin’s direction was not a subtle as he was probably hoping.

Garth shook his head. “If you think so… They’ll have to divide their focus more if we all go in separately.”

Kevin crossed his arms. He’d been caught with his mouth full, otherwise he clearly would have been arguing that he was just as capable as any of them.

Sam caught kevin’s look. “Gabriel?”

“Sorry kiddo, I’m with them on this one. Kev knows what he’s getting into and he’s got to learn the basics at some point.” Gabriel picked a bit of fluff out of one of the spell bags and flicked it away.

Sam put on his. ‘I really hope you’re right because if you’re not I’m going to hold it over you forever’ bitchface and settled back a little further on the bed.

“So we all go in, bury the bags, say the chant.” Gabriel went on. “It doesn’t have to be in any order so just get it done as fast as you can then go help whoever needs it.” The last was directed at Sam who looked down and nodded. “Then I go to the center of the lot and say the final chant and we’re done. Holy ground for maybe a year or two and no evil spirits will be able to exist there in the mean time.”

Gabriel tied up the last bag and tossed it to Garth.

“Best time to try it is at noon.”

 

They got to the site at 11:30, and took up their positions. The new community center consisted of three buildings all clustered on the western edge of the lot, and a soccer field that took up the rest of the space. The place wasn’t actually open yet, since the interior was still being finished. Add to the fact that it was Wednesday and they had the place pretty much to themselves. With a few orange vests no one would pay any attention to them.

Sam claimed the west corner, since that would be the hardest place to dig; out behind the buildings. Luckily there was a tree back there so he wouldn’t have to try going through concrete.Gabriel took the east corner to balance Sam, with Kevin on the south and Garth taking the north.

Gabriel gave kevin and Garth a head start and stepped forward a full minute after the others. He wasn't planning on using his magic but the super strength wasn't something he could really turn off and on so he'd be digging faster than the others anyway. An effort of will widened his range of vision so he was able to see through the lightly packed soil. Digging in a city like this meant the most dangerous thing wasn't the spirits that might attack, it was hitting a power line or a sewage pipe and screwing up the spell with contaminates.

The moment he crossed onto the property Gabriel could feel the hound spirits. They were making a racket, three attacking Garth while another went after Kevin.

Gabriel slammed his shovel into the ground and snarled trying to get their attention. The pack was reacting to the hunters as if they were a rival pack of animals. The howls filled the air, ethereal. Gabriel ignored the sound and waited. He’d defend himself if he was attacked but the dogs seemed to be waiting for the hunters to get closer, to truly step into their territory. They were confused like Garth had predicted and unwilling to commit to attacking a single target.

Sam's whistle came first signaling that the spell packet was buried and he was starting to chant. A second later Gabriel felt the first cornerstone of the spell fall into place and Sam ran to help the others. Gabriel shoved his own bag into the earth and started chanting at an inhuman speed.Kevin and Garth's whistles came almost on top of each other. Gabriel whistled back and waited for a beet, spreading his wings. He crouched then pushed himself forward, not quite flying but going faster than any human could have managed. He stopped dead center of the lot and the ghost hounds turned in surprise. The spectral pack seemed to decide as one that Gabriel was the true threat. One leapt at his throat and the howls leapt in pitch.

Gabriel drew his sword to knock the first beast away. He said the final chant in Enochian; it was faster and had more impact than latin.

It was a mistake.

With his wings already out the angel language triggered a subconscious flair of power.

His angel self was still close to the surface from the day before and with his wings out it was too much. The language triggered something in him and the act of blessing the land was too much a holy act. It was alien to the trickster side of him. The hounds were ripped apart as the land was blessed in a flair of white light and ozone. Gabriel tried to pull himself back together folding his wings in and hiding his presence in his vessel.

After he’d stepped back into the world Gabriel had known that the mechanics of the universe would try to force him into one of his two persona’s trying to walk the line between them was alien to the nature of things, but he had decided to try it anyway. He had expected it to get easier though. Over time he would learn to handle the pressure, and his power would come back, and everything would work out. The problem was that it wasn’t working fast enough.

He fell into the trickster side of his persona in a frantic attempt to balance himself out. After all it had worked once before. Then Sam was at his side. Only then did Gabriel realize he was glowing. He could see the light reflecting off Sam’s hair and eyes and skin. The kiddo really shouldn’t be looking at him like that, it was dangerous. He redoubled his effort to pull himself together, and the effects made him light headed. He reached up and tweaked Sam’s nose

“Boop.”

Sam rolled his eyes and his shoulders drooped a bit. The samsquash was probably happy he’d only turned the grass purple this time.

“Gabriel you want to explain what just happened?”

Gabriel shrugged and tried to stand. It didn’t work so well. When had he even ended up on the ground? “Nothing, just a reaction to the spell. Didn’t do it on purpose.” His words came out in drunken curlycues.Sam gave him a look. His guilt tree sprouted another branch. “I mean it. Not on purpose. You can do the spell next time if you’re so worried.” Sam huffed out a long suffering sigh and helped Gabriel to his feet. This time he stayed there.

Garth and Kevin were approaching over the grass and giving them weird looks.

“Everything Okay? Was the light show supposed to happen?” Kevin asked.

Gabriel shrugged. “Not if one of you had done it. A little spillage, everything’s fine. This is officially holy ground.” Gabriel waved a hand around. Kevin was suitably distracted but Garth was looking him up and down.

“You’re an angel?”

Gabriel flinched. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t spread that around. I’m kind of laying low right now. Everyone is supposed to think I’m dead.” He paused and looked at the scrawny hunter. “How do you know about angels anyway?”

Garth grinned and kind of ducked his head. “Sam and Dean weren’t the only ones who survived the apocalypse. The world’s been crazy the last few years. You hear things. Plus there’s that rumor of Dean hooking up with an angel, so it kind of fit.”

Sam looked Garth over with new eyes. He’d always kind of underestimated him. Garth had the kind of countenance that no one took seriously, but he had managed to survive as a hunter for years, and without a partner to watch his back. He was more than just a goofy grin.

Sam gave Garth the edited version of the story. Gabriel let himself sink into Sam’s side. Sammy was explaining things so he really didn’t need to pay attention.


	3. Chapter 3

 

Sam wasn't surprised Garth had a base of operations. Most hunters had a few safe places to hide out. What did surprise Sam was that the hideout was a houseboat. Though in retrospect he really should have expected something weird like that.

They got in late enough that Sam was half asleep at the wheel and Kevin was dead on his feet. Gabriel of course was fresh as a daisy. They trotted out to the end of the pier, bags over their shoulders and fell onto the first comfortable surface they could find. By that point Sam trusted Gabriel to set up any defenses they needed.

After twelve solid hours of sleep Sam rolled off the bed he’d shared with Garth to the smell of eggs and potatoes mixed with something less standard for breakfast fare, crab? Gabriel was the one cooking on the small hotplate of course, and Sam took the time while Gabriel was finishing up to finally take in his surroundings.

The boat was comprised of four small rooms. A bedroom that was barely bigger then the queen bed squeezed into it, that was where he and Garth had crashed last night. Kevin had taken the couch. In fact Kevin was still on the couch, wrapped up in a quilt and occasionally twitching in his sleep. The rest of the main room held a kitchen alcove, a two person table and a set of maps on the wall between the bathroom door and the closet sized storage room, that apparently held everything needed to actually run the boat.

Sam sat at the table, pulled his hair out of his face and looked at the angel. “We good?” By that point he trusted Gabriel’s assessment of the wards. If Garth’s set up hadn’t been up to scratch Gabriel would have put up his own.

“Yep. No one can see us unless they actually step onto the dock, and even then we look incredibly boring.” Gabriel tipped the eggs onto a plate. Sam started to take the plate, but Gabriel pulled it away. “You get the next batch, this one’s for Kevin.”

“Kevin?” he glanced over at the young prophet. “Is he okay?”

Gabriel shrugged. “He’s just the way Dad intended.”

Kevin had his face pressed into the arm of the couch and the other clutched tightly to his chest. As Sam watched Kevin muttered something in latin and shuddered. The kid’s breathing hitched and for a moment his whole body tensed up.

Sam stood and stepped forward, reaching out a hand to wake Kevin up, but Gabriel again motioned for him to stop. Sam took a breath, He knew he was wearing one of those faces Dean always made fun of but he needed to know what was going on.

“Trust me.” Gabriel whispered. Sam let out the breath and sat down beside the angel.

It was a long ten minutes before Kevin relaxed. A minute after that he blinked awake. He didn’t look like he’d just taken a nap. In fact he looked like he could use a few extra hours, a good meal and a week off.

He saw Sam and Gabriel watching. “You guys know that’s creepy right?” his hands twitched, tugging at the corner of the pillow he still held.

Sam glanced at Gabriel, then back to Kevin. “You were dreaming.”

Kevin shrugged. He realized what his hands were doing, and set the pillow aside, but the nervousness only shifted to his eyes. They darted over the room as if he couldn’t look at anything too long.

Gabriel picked up a spiral notebook and a pen, passing them to Kevin as if he’d asked for them. “Here, write it all down. I’ll get you some food.” Gabriel stood and went to make another omelet as if nothing odd had happened.

Kevin was seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world as soon as the pen was in his hands. He pulled his legs up on the couch, propped the notebook on his knees and started scribbling.

Sam watched the tension ease out of Kevin’s forehead and felt his jaw unclench. He looked over at the archangel and pushed himself to his feet. Whatever was happening, good or bad, Sam wanted to know.

“Gabriel.” Sam stopped and rolled his eyes. “Gabriel, I do not need strawberries in my omelet”

Gabriel shrugged. “Who said this was yours?” He waved offhandedly and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Kevin?” Sam pressed when it was clear Gabriel was going to ignore him.

Gabe looked up from his food and glanced back at the young prophet. “He’ll be okay. Just got to learn to focus that talent a bit, then the pressure will ease up.” Gabriel stuffed a forkful into his mouth, then after a second remembered to actually put his food on a plate.

Sam crossed his arms and glanced back at the young prophet of the lord.

“What do you mean?”

Gabriel waved his chopsticks around, and added another slice of bacon to the plate for Kevin. “All prophets and saints were supposed to be watched over by archangels. There aren’t too many of us so we switched it up. At least that was how it worked before I got out of there. Kevin’s still adjusting to the mind-whammy.” He crossed the room setting the plate down next to Kevin for whenever he wanted it. Kevin didn’t even seem to notice. Gabriel looked back at Sam. “You didn’t notice the nightmares?”

“Nightmares kind of come with the job. I figured they were just.” Sam shrugged. His features had turned inward, and it was clear his memories weren’t good ones. Sam shook his head coming back to the present. “He was captured by Crowley, tortured.”

Gabriel stepped up to Sam and tugged on his shirt until Sam bent enough to let Gabriel kiss him. “Anytime you want to talk about those nightmares: I’m here. And as for the kid: He’s tough, and he’s got one hell of a talent for the work if what I’ve seen so far is any indication. Most prophets only have to deal with one world crisis, but he’s managed to juggle the tablets and deal with your chaos. And speaking of the tablets, we really should have a talk about hiding them at some point.”

Sam had to consider that. “Yeah, will he be alright?”

“I’ll help him through the hard parts and like I said, he’s tough. Dad made the right choice nominating this kid.” Gabriel picked the frying pan again and started making food for everyone else.

Sam had finally given in and moved to sit back at the table when Kevin’s pen stopped moving. He read over what he had written then tossed the notebook aside, flopped back and glanced over the rest of the room. He spotted the plate set aside for him and picked it up with gratitude.

Gabriel finished eating before retrieving the notebook and scanning over it. He whistled. “Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting. Hey Sammykins, remember how I said Dean probably wasn’t dead?”

Sam’s head snapped up fast enough to send his hair whipping around.

“Looks like I was right.” Gabriel tossed him the notebook, and Sam dropped his fork without hesitation to catch it.

He read over the cramped cursive once, then read it over again, slower. He read it through a third time, mouthing the words as if memorizing them.This was as much solid proof as they were likely to get. Dean and Cas were in purgatory, and at least for the moment, still alive.

Gabriel was back at the hot plate, checking how many eggs he had left when Sam pulled himself together. The hunter put the notebook down gingerly, running his other hand over his eyes.

“Visions?” he asked the room at large.

Kevin looked up from his food. “Is that what they are? But then, why am I suddenly having visions now?”

“Well, recording the actions of the Winchesters was kind of a task left over from your predecessor. It got stuck in the backlog while the tablets were center stage. My guess is that since you were near the Winchesters the powers that be assumed you already knew what was happening. Now that Dean’s gone and got himself trapped in another dimension the visions are back so you can keep track of him.”

“But half of that was about Castiel.”

“Cassie is basically the third Winchester at this point. If you’re getting visions about them, he’ll be there.” Gabriel waved his spatula around as if that was obvious.

The room fell silent again, Gabriel had found some frozen blueberries somewhere and mixed them in with the next batch of eggs.

Kevin finally spoke up hesitantly. “Does that mean. Well, you know, the plan was that I’d stick with you until everything was safe, then I’d get to go back to my life. If being with Sam is the only thing keeping me from having visions of him as well…”

Gabriel put down the pan. “Look, Kevin. Even if we do find somewhere safe, you’ll still be the Lord's prophet. You’ll have visions and weird flashes and tablets to translate for the rest of your life. There’s no getting around it, but I promise you, you won’t have to deal with it all on your own.” Gabriel brightened, his eyes taking on a mischievous glint. “In fact… Turn around, lift up your shirt.”

Kevin looked confused but Sam nodded encouragingly. He turned so he was sitting cross legged on the couch and pulled his shirt off over his head. Gabriel plopped down behind him and ran two fingers lightly over one shoulder blade.

“You were going to have to get an anti-possession tattoo anyway, might as well take care of two birds with one stone.” Gabriel laid his hand flat and took a slow breath, concentrating as he let it out. Under his hand lines of black ink blead onto Kevin’s skin.

It was the familiar pentagram of the anti-possession tattoo but instead of being surrounded by the sun motif it was trapped in a stylized horn, the symbol for Gabriel, above the horn were three symbols, runes that looked almost nordic. Sam knew two of the three, in the center the symbol for fire, and on the right the symbol for magic. Gabriel noticed his eyes and named the third.

“Justice, or retribution depending on how it’s translated.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” There was awe in Sam’s voice.

“What? What did he do?” Kevin tried to crane his head around.

Sam took pity and sketched out the symbols for him. “Will it still work as an anti-possession symbol with the changes?”

“Oh yeah, the sun flare is a general declaration of ‘I’m on heaven’s side’. With the horn it would read, protected by the archangel Gabriel not just protected by heaven. And the runes say the same thing only substitute Loki for Gabriel, so you shouldn’t have to worry about any pagan gods if you ever run into any.”

Sam rocked back on his heals. “Useful.”

“You know, I could change yours too if you ask nicely.” Gabriel said leaning in close and tracing the hunter’s tattoo through the thin fabric of his t-shirt.

Sam went bright red and mumbled something under his breath. The angel laughed and stood on tiptoe to kiss Sam on the corner of his mouth.

“Maybe later then.”

 

<><><><><>

 

They settled into a routine. The boat was small for four grown men but only Kevin had a real target on his back. Sam and Garth started pulling together contacts, spending hours on the phone or driving for a few hours to meet up with other hunters in person if they were close.

There were a lot of people who didn’t trust Sam. Didn’t believe he was who he said he was or just didn’t trust a Winchester period. Garth handled as many of those cases as he could. He at least had a decent reputation, and had somehow managed to never get arrested. It was surprising how many hunters had either started out in law enforcement, or treated Hunting as a side job to being a cop or Sheriff.

Sam had spent a full evening on the phone with Jody a few days after they’d settled in. She was keeping an eye on Bobby’s old salvage yard, what was left of it after the fire. The house was gone but the garage out behind the house was still mostly intact as were the shells of the cars and the iron gate that circled the property.

Apparently he’d left the property to Sam and Dean.

Too many people knew about it for it to be a decent safehouse but Sam wasn’t about to leave one of the closes things to a home that he had in shambles. Jody agreed to keep an eye on the place and get the old barn ready in case they ever needed a place to fall back to.

 

~~~><~~~

 

While the two hunters were off Kevin stayed in the shelter of the houseboat, researching, translating or learning to focus his dreams with Gabriel’s guidance. When he wasn’t helping Kevin, Gabriel did whatever came to mind. Fishing or crabbing off the end of the dock, taking the bags of dirty clothing they all generated to the laundromat, doing the shopping… Not doing the shopping after Sam gave him a ‘why do you put me through this’ look when Gabriel came back with four types of brightly colored cereal and chocolate milk but nothing else.

The good news: they were pulling things together. The bad news: in such tight quarters it was nearly impossible to get time alone with Sam.

Gabriel glared at Sam. He’d been on the phone for over an hour now listening to a hunter in west Texas go on about something that was killing cattle. The idiot had thought it was a chupacabra but Sam had ruled that out in the first ten minutes.

Gabriel looked back at the tiny portable TV where Doctor Sexy was flirting with the head nurse. In the background Sam said something about a griffin and Gabe rolled his eyes. For once Kevin had gone with Garth since he’d been going a little stir crazy. They were in the next state and weren’t due back until the next morning.

Before the surprise call Gabriel had been hoping this would be his chance for some sexytimes. He needed his Sam fix, but no. Stupid hunters and their stupid not doing research. Gabriel looked back at Sam, bent over his fathers’ journal like he was going to find something new.

Gabriel pouted for another minute then decided to take matters into his own hands. He got up and snatched the phone from Sam’s ear, interrupting the hunter on the other end. “Were there scales? Yeah, feather tufts got it, but were there scales? Little copper disks about the size of a nickel? Right, yeah, and were the corpses eaten or just torn apart? Okay, yeah, you’re looking at a cocatrice. Use goat blood to lure it in then set up a bunch of mirrors and it’ll try to fight itself until it collapses. Make sure you have a bronze or copper knife to cut off it’s head.”

He hung up and tossed the phone on the table, rolling his eyes.

Sam was looking up at him, his expression somewhere between awe and gratitude.

“Thank you.”

Gabriel rolled one shoulder and stole a sip of Sam’s beer.

“Really. One of these days I’m going to have to pick your brain about this stuff.”

“You’re a huge nerd, you know that right?” But Gabriel was smiling and he leaned in, straddling Sam’s waist. “You’re lucky that huge brain of yours is sexy.”

Sam closed the gap, lightly kissing Gabriel. “You know, I saw what you did earlier. Sending Kevin off with Garth.”

“It’s been days Sasquatch. Days. I need my Sammy fix.” And maybe his magic had been fluctuating a bit --. He still hadn’t found a way to tell Sam about that. The little seed of guilt put out another branch.

Sam kissed him again and pulled him closer. Gabriel ignored the guilt tree in favor of wrapping his arms around Sam’s neck and rubbing himself all over his chest. Sam let his head fall back. He took a ragged breath as Gabriel rocked his hips. The hunter’s large hands slipped up under his shirt and started exploring. Gabriel purred his appreciation and arched back into the touch. He found Sam’s lips again and the kisses turned lazy.

Sam chuckled. “Are you going to melt all over me or should we move this to the bed?”

“Can I do both?” Gabriel mouthed at a spot on Sam’s neck.

Sam pulled Gabriel in close, Nuzzling his face into Gabriel’s neck and wrapping his arms all the way around the smaller man. Gabriel wasn’t the only one who needed this. Trying to juggle a whole network of hunters, tracking Crowley, keeping Kevin off the radar. Sam honestly didn’t know how Bobby had managed it all. Hunting may have gotten him and Dean torn up on occasion, but this was a whole different level of exhausting.

Gabriel stroked Sams hair. “Come on. Bed. Let me take care of you.”

Sam grabbed Gabriel’s hips, braced himself and stood. Gabriel laughed in surprise, and grabbed on. It was a few quick strides to the bed. Then Sam turned and let himself fall onto the pillows with Gabriel on top of him.

Gabriel adjusted his position with a small huff of breath. He propped himself up and admired the man beneath him, licking his lips. He started with Sam’s over-shirt. Sam tried to help but the angel just brushed his hands away.

Gabriel was going to take his time.

Sam slowly relaxed. He shifted when Gabriel nudged him in one direction or another, but otherwise he let himself enjoy it. Gabriel tossed Sam’s over-shirt over the side of the bed and slipped his hands under the hem of the white T-shirt Sam had been wearing under it.

Gabriel was sitting on Sam’s thighs, his whole body slowly rolling up the larger man’s form. Sam let his eyes close. The muscles of his stomach quivered under Gabriel’s feather light touches. Gabriel knew exactly what he was doing when he levered himself up to kiss Sam and his hips rolled slowly.

Sam breathed out a breathless little ‘oh’ and his hands knotted in the blankets. Gabriel nuzzled at Sam’s jaw, kissing the barest hint of stubble and working his way slowly towards Sam’s ear.

“So beautiful, Sam. Can’t believe you’re mine. Never want to let you go.”

Sam gave up on the sheets in favor of tugging on Gabriel’s shirt. Gabriel sat up and caught one of Sam’s wrists.

“Easy there big guy, we’re going at my speed tonight.” He kissed Sam’s knuckles then his palm. “You’ve been taking care of everything. I’m going to take care of this. So don’t, you, move.” Gabriel leaned forward and touched his lips to Sam’s with the last word. He backed up enough to look Sam in the eye. “And I will tie you down if I have to.”

Gabriel’s smile was all trickster.Sam let his head fall back into the pillows, his arms fall back to the mattress. Gabriel hummed his approval and got to work.

His own shirt came off first, then Sam’s undershirt. The hunter watched him with lazy lidded eyes. At this point Sam was still humoring him, so Gabriel slowed it down even further when he slipped down the bed and took Sam’s feet in his lap. He loosened the laces on Sam’s army surplus hiking boots and eased them off as if it was a very important task all on it’s own. Sam snorted but he let his eyes drift shut.

Gabriel dropped Sam’s shoes off the bed. The trickster in him was tempted to see if Sam was ticklish but he pushed the urge aside. Drawing one of Sam’s feet into his lap, Gabriel massaged the arch, drawing his fingers up between the toes, following the tendons. He rolled Sam’s ankle loosening the joint before setting that foot aside and paying the same attention to the other.

Sam’s breathing had leveled out, deep and lazy. Gabriel set Sam’s second foot aside and crawled up beside him. Gabriel’s trickster nature was simmering just under the surface. They’d had sex, and it was good, hell it was fantastic, but he’d never spent the time to explore. He let his hand brush over Sam’s chest, feeling his breathing, his heartbeat, and the chuckle as Sam opened his eyes.

“Having fun?”

Gabriel blinked innocently. This time Sam let the chuckle become a real laugh. Gabriel could feel the vibrations. His fingers traced around Sam’s anti-possession tattoo, then down to his nipple, circling. Sam’s laugh trickled off into a happy sigh.

Gabriel bent to kiss his hunter’s shoulder, his hands wandering down Sam’s sides. Sam’s soul was bright under his skin, coming close to the surface when Gabriel found each sensitive spot. He teased the light into patterns only he could see, writing symbols for protection and strength and love, tying them together with his own name. Making Sam his by inches.

Propping himself up, Gabriel found Sam's lips and gave them the attention they deserved. Sam smiled into the kiss. He’d closed his eyes again, and he responded slowly, lazy after all the attention. Gabriel took his time with the kiss, making sure to be as thorough as he had with Sam’s chest. One of Gabriel’s hands, as if it had a mind of it’s own, slipped lower. it found the edge of Sam’s jeans, tracing the fine hairs and sensitive skin from the dip of a hip inwards.

A soft breathless humm escaped Sam between kisses. The hunter was half hard, content where he was until Gabriel had drawn his attention back to what they were leading up to.

“Gabriel.”

More a whisper then a word but the angel silenced him anyway. “Shh, I’ve got you.”

With one hand Gabriel undid the button on Sam’s jeans, easing the zipper down. His lips slipped down Sam’s Jaw to the hollow of his throat.

He worked at leaving a mark, sucking on Sam’s pulse, feeling the hunter’s soul reach out for him. Sam tasted like lemonade, a bit sour and a bit sweet and the perfect thing to quench his thirst.

Gabriel pulled gently on that thread of Sam’s soul, coiling it for when Sam came and flooded Gabriel with the magic of life. Sam whimpered, his face turning pained for a moment, before Gabriel slid his hand down to cup his cock and push a bit of his grace back at Sam to replace what he was taking. It made Sam’s breath catch, before the hunter deliberately brought it back under control.

Sam swallowed and in his pulse Gabriel could feel the trust Sam had placed in him. It trickled down the thread Gabriel held like warm honey. All the sweeter for being given unconsciously. That small act broke the dam, and suddenly Gabriel was tired of waiting. Sam was so beautiful and perfect and he wanted him, all of him, now.

His angel side was reaching out, wanting to touch that light without the barrier of flesh, even if it meant possessing Sam, just as long as he got to line up his grace with Sam’s soul and twine them together. His trickster side wanted the flesh, wanted to try a thousand different things with his hunter, until his body offered itself up just as willingly as his soul. The trickster side won out possibly because there was no way he was going to stop what he was doing now. Sam let out a breath as Gabriel pulled his cock free and pushed his jeans down his legs.

After a moments consideration Gabriel slid back off the bed. Sam let out a needy little whine as he left. The loss of skin contact breaking the energy loop. The hunter opened his eyes looking hurt and almost afraid of the loss. When he saw Gabriel shedding the last of his own clothing with a kind of mechanical urgency Sam bit his lip, stifling further protest. Gabriel pulled a condom from his discarded pants then moved around to the foot of the bed, and divested Sam of his clothing as well. Sam watched him with that same expression of trust and need.

Task accomplished Gabriel climbed up his moose of a hunter, straddling him and leaned in for a kiss. As soon as their lips touched Sam’s soul reached for him again. Gabriel had no qualms about letting the warmth and energy wash through him. He sent back all his love in return.

Sam couldn’t help but react to the circuit reestablishing itself. He finally moved his arms from their relaxed position at his side, reaching up to wrap around Gabriel’s waist, feeling the muscles move in his angel’s back. Gabriel made an approving sound into Sam’s mouth and reached back to guide one of Sam’s hands towards his ass; his other hand rolling the condom onto Sam’s now fully hard cock.

Sam was smart, Sam was a fucking genius and somehow Sam retained his genius enough to slide a finger around Gabriel’s hole, even while Gabriel was doing his best to switch off Sam’s brain via his lips. Sam pressed a finger in and dear father, Gabriel was never going to stop being surprised by the size and dexterity of those hands.

Sam froze when the angel winced. As good as it was, they desperately needed lube. Gabriel sent a pulse of love through the circuit and Sam seemed to relax, keeping his hands and more importantly his finger where it was.

Gabriel hadn’t done any magic in a while, but the lube was all the way across the room and he wasn’t about to break the circuit again. Fetching it wouldn’t require too much effort, and he did have a lot more reserves now. He let himself expand, touched the bottle with a feather of his grace and pulled it into his hand. It was something he’d done a million times. He wouldn’t have given it any thought, except he’d never tried doing magic while participating in a circuit with someone.

Sam had no frame of reference for the matrix of reality shifting not only around him, but through him. He jerked, his head falling back, his eyes wide. His hands clenched one starting a bruise on Gabriel’s shoulder blade while the other, in his ass, shoved roughly deeper. Gabriel winced but Sam’s cock was still hard and dripping against his hip.

“It’s okay Sammykins, I’ve got you. Just breath.” Gabriel took his own advice, easing back on the power he held and smoothing out the link between them. It took a minute or two for Sam’s breath to fall back into the deep cadence from before. Gabriel helped it along by running a loose hand over his dick.

When Sam's’ eyes drifted shut again Gabriel finally reached for the bottle of lube now cradled on the bed beside them. He guided Sam’s hands back to the bed, kissing each wrist before setting it on the sheets. Coating one hand, Gabriel sat up and reached behind himself, working himself open.

Sam was back to being relaxed now, but this time he was alert, watching every arch of Gabriel’s back as he tried to get his fingers in deeper. Gabriel noticed his eyes and winked as he added another finger. A satisfied grin played over the angels features, and through the circuit Gabriel could feel Sam’s rising lust.

“I think I had a dream like this once.” Sam said lazily.

Gabriel’s returning grin lit up his whole face, and his eyes glittered with mischief. “Oh, you fantasizing about me now? You know if you want me, all you have to do is ask.” He pulled his fingers out and lined his stretched hole up with Sam’s cock, smearing it with lube in the process. “What do you say Sam? Do you want me?”

“Oh, fuck. Yes I want you.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” And Gabriel let himself slide down, sheathing Sams cock until he was sitting on Sam’s hips.

Sam let out a harsh breath that might have contained Gabriel’s name, but the angel was too focused on the circuit to respond. When Sam slipped inside him the hunter had opened the floodgates. Energy was pouring into Gabriel and the angel could barely manage to absorb it without overflowing. He could hardly believe Sam hadn’t come right then, because nothing else should have triggered that kind of current. It prompted a response in kind.

Sam rocked up, simply unable to stay still with Gabriel’ power flowing through him. The angel rolled his hips in return. They fell into a building rhythm as naturally as breathing. Gabriel’s erection bouncing against his stomach every time he levered himself up and then took Sam back in. Sam did his best to angle for Gabriel’s prostrate but with a flood of overwhelming sensations rolling through him, it was hard to do anything but react.

Sam ran his hands up Gabriel’s legs. Leveraging himself up until he could pull Gabriel in for a kiss. Gabriel responded enthusiastically. Between them Sam found Gabriel’s cock and started stroking.

Gabriel broke the kiss with a gasp. Sam was deep inside him, setting off every pleasure switch he had and stroking him off with his other hand clawing at his back. It was too much. He wrapped up everything he was feeling, all the lust and trust and love, sending it through the circuit in a wave as he came over Sam’s hand.

Sam took everything Gabriel offered, multiplied it by his own feelings and sent it roaring back into Gabriel.

Sam bit off a cry jerking his hips up and pulling Gabriel as close as he could get him. He buried his face in Gabriel’s neck and emptied himself into his lover while Gabriel was still shaking from his own orgasm.

Overloaded, the circuit between them broke leaving both hunter and angel in a happy stupor. Gabriel did a casual check of his power levels. With Sam’s latest contribution he was back to nearly a third of his pre-Lucifer power.

Gabriel helped Sam ease back down to the bed, lifting himself off Sam’s flagging cock to settle beside him. They needed to get cleaned up but that could wait until one or both of them could stand without wobbling. Or better yet Gabriel could just use his discarded shirt, and not move at all. He was the one who ended up doing the laundry most times so it wasn’t like anyone else was going to bitch about it.

He stripped the condom off Sam’s flagging erection and tied it with clumsy fingers. By the time he tossed it in the direction of the trash can Sam was half asleep. Gabriel snuggled into his chest and gave in to the urge to doze.

 

 

 

<><><><><>

 

 

Gabriel propped his elbows on the table and looked at the hunter across from him. The previous night had been amazing but with Kevin and Garth both back on the boat Sam was acting like it hadn’t happened. “Samalam?”

Sam didn’t look up. “Hmmm?”

“Can’t someone else do this? It’s just networking. A little hacking and we could have a phone list set up in a half hour.”

Sam crossed off a number on his list and wrote another number next to it. “Well, do you know anyone who can set it up? Because everyone I know is either dead or in hiding.”

Reuniting the hunter network was supposed to be meeting interesting people and convincing them not to kill him. Instead it apparently meant phone tag. A huge complicated game of phone tag. Garth had a bunch of numbers and Sam had added his own contacts to the list along with Bobby's old call log, and the journal. Then every time they did manage to reach a hunter more numbers were added to the list.

Three of the guys they'd talked to had only had sketchy english. Since Sam’s spanish was lacking, Gabriel had tried to translate. Only that was boring too, especially after they’d told him to stop embellishing things.

So in the end there they were with lists and lists of phone numbers. Didn’t anyone know about the internet? This was the twenty first century right? He hadn’t slipped back in time by mistake somehow? Seriously.

Sam gave him his ‘if you don’t have anything constructive to say then just stay quiet.’ look. Gabriel pouted. Then his brain finally finished processing the question Sam had asked.

“Actually I do know someone.” his grin spread to maniac levels and Sam finally looked up.

“You do?”

“Yep. Met Little Red when I was doing the trickster gig. There was this CEO who liked to harass his workers. Fun times.”

Sam straightened. “Think they’re still in the business?”

“Oh yeah, but she’s not going to be easy to find.” He stood.

He stood up and drummed on the table a few times. “Come on Sammamish. if you want to catch em we’re going to have to move fast.” Sam reacted to the manic grin as much as the encouragements, grabbing up his papers and shoving them into the pocket of his laptop bag.

“What do you mean?”

“Only one time of year when I could pinpoint where she’s going to be and lucky for you it happens to be next week. Come on. We’re headed to California.”

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

It took them a day and a half to drive down the coast but Gabriel insisted that they had to get to LA before friday or ELSE. Sam just shook his head and drove. Kevin seemed able to roll with the punches, but at this point he didn’t even know where normal was anymore.

Gabriel directed them to a convention center and Sam started getting twitchy when the costumes started overwhelming the normal clothes on the people walking around.

“Gabriel?”

“Moose?”

“Why are we headed to a convention?”

Gabriel turned in his seat and gave him a flat look. “Sammy, this isn’t just some convention. This is Comic Con. The single best convention ever.”

Sam rolled his eyes. He clearly didn’t get it. Something must have happened to put the Samsquash off; normally he wasn’t so quick to denounce things like this.

Sam parkedin a structure next to the convention center, and got out of the car. Kevin was staring around like this was his first view into a different world. Gabriel hadn’t seen the kid react this much since he’d met him.

“Okay. We go in there. Find this guy.” Sam started.

“Girl.” Gabriel interrupted.

“Girl, and ask her to help. Then we can find a hotel or something and--”

But Gabriel was already shaking his head.

“Sammy, Sammy Sammy, that is not how you go about attending a con.”

Sam gave Gabriel a look. This was one Gabriel hadn’t cataloged. It was somewhere between ‘please don’t make me go in there’ and ‘ what are you even talking about?’

“Umm. Kevin cleared his throat. “We can’t get in. They’ve probably been sold out for months.”

Gabriel waved a hand and snapped his fingers. Sam rubbed a hand over his eyes when plastic bags of door prizes and wrist bands appeared for each of them.

“That’s not the important thing.” Gabriel said. Kevin glanced up but he seemed starstruck by the door prices so Sam was the one to ask

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Again Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Can’t go to a con without costumes.”

Sam’s face went blank but Gabriel sensed an ally in the sparkle behind Kevin’s eyes. The young prophet was never exactly chatty but he was never overwhelmed either. Most of the time his eyes danced over everything around him. Taking it in and analyzing it; picking out the hidden meanings and drawing connections that no one else could see. His father had certainly done a good job when he picked Kevin, not like some other prophets Gabriel could name. Now though, Kevin’s eyes followed all the bright costumes and he was biting his lip as if fighting with himself.

So Gabriel ignored Sam for the moment and innocently turned towards the kid. “What do you think, Trek or Wars? Or you could go with something newer, Harry Potter maybe, Doctor Who?”

Kevin was blushing and apparently he’d never seen shoes before. He muttered something that Gabriel only understood because of his super-awesome archangel powers.

“Star Wars it is. You thinking Jedi, rebel or storm trooper?” His hand was up to snap again and Kevin looked like he was about to implode from sheer embarrassment. Except then Sam’s hand was around his wrist.

“Gabriel!”

The angel met Sam's eyes then looked back at Kevin. “Hey, Kev, can you give me an’ the moose a minute?” He didn’t wait for Kevin’s nod before dragging Sam around the car. “Look Sasquatch, the kid’s been on the run for how long now? And before that, what do you think his life was like? You told me how he first introduced himself. ‘Kevin Tran, in advanced placement’ right? If he saw that as his entire identity, what do you think his life was like? My guess is that he hasn’t had a chance to let loose in almost as long as you, and that is saying something. You both need a vacation before you go insane so if I find out the kid is a closet geek then I’m going to encourage that purely to keep him from going insane.” Gabriel met Sam's eyes and for once there was no hint of amusement behind his eyes. “You’re not going to stop me on this so you might as well come along for the ride and have a little fun yourself.” Gabriel dropped the serious act and put on a pout. “But if you want to go find some hotel and go back to your notes instead of hangout I guess I’ll understand.”

Sam rolled his eyes at the act but he was going to give in and they both knew it.

“Fine but keep the magic to a minimum.” Sam’s concerned look flashed over his face before he realized something else. “And I am not wearing a costume.”

Gabriel pouted again but he took what he could get. “He boosted up onto his toes to lay a light kiss on Sam's lips before spinning around and bouncing back over to Kevin. “I’ll convince you eventually.” He called over his shoulder.

“So Kev, storm trooper or Jedi?”

Kevin went with Jedi although Gabriel sensed there was something more specific he really wanted. Maybe the lightsaber would make up for it. Gabriel couldn’t make a real lightsaber without using more power than he currently had but making a copy of the original movie prop was no trouble.

Sam only rolled his eyes when Gabriel snapped his own costume on and held his arms out to show it off. “Don’t you think Deadpool is a bit on the nose?”

“Deadpool is a comic genius, and plain clothed people do not get to comment.”

Sam held up his hands in surrender; then stuck his hands in his pockets and followed along as Gabriel pulled Kevin towards the entrance.

“Just remember we’re here for a reason.” He called out.

Gabriel waved a negligent hand. “Check the schedule, she’ll be here.”

 

~~~><~~~

 

Sam paused as they joined the flood of people, and fished the panel schedule out of the bag of door prizes he was still holding. He looked over the list but nothing stood out as a tech panel or anything. He really needed to pull Gabriel aside and get more info on this person. He trusted Gabriel’s judgement most of the time but pulling someone into the supernatural world if they didn’t already know about it was something he’d rather not be responsible for. Then again if they’d met Gabriel back when he was playing trickster maybe that wasn’t an issue.

They held up their wrists and passed into the dealers room, and were forced to stop. Kevin was staring with wide eyes and Gabriel was smirking. Even Sam was impressed at the shear amount of people bright colors and signs. it was like walking into a different world, and yeah maybe Sam was feeling a little like the odd man out in his lack of costume… at least until someone Grinned up at him and said.

“Nice Sam costume.”

Sam groaned and sent up a silent prayer. Not again. Gabriel got an evil look and pointed to a booth three down from where they were standing.

It had a large sign proclaiming that the secret manuscripts of Carver Edlund would be released in conjunction with the first episode in the new Supernatural mini-series. Because of course this was his life. There was even a car; right there in the booth. A shiny black ‘67 Impala. The trunk was propped open and there were weapons, clearly fake, laid out inside it. A devil's trap with half the symbols backwards was carefully painted on the underside of the hood. They were charging five dollars to pose with the car and get your picture taken.

Sam could feel his shoulders droop. He looked down at Gabriel but the angel was no help. He had the largest evil grin on his face Sam had ever seen.

“No.”

“Samsquanch…” He drew out the nickname.

“No!”

“But Sammipop.”

“Don’t even.”

“But you match!”

Kevin was quietly snickering in the background. His eyes going from the car to Sam and back. “You have a mini-series?”

“The last prophet wrote cheap paperbacks.” Sam said, still glaring at Gabriel, and okay maybe that was a low blow because they both saw Kevin flinch.

Then Gabriel’s manic grin came back. “You know... if you were in costume I wouldn’t have to drag you over there because you wouldn’t match any more.” Gabriel waggled his eyebrows and held up his hands ready to snap.

Sam let his head fall back and sighed. “Fine go ahead. Just don’t put me in something ridiculous.”

Gabriel considered for a long moment looking Sam up and down and pondering. Sam closed his eyes. suddenly terribly worried. Gabe snapped his fingers and what Sam mostly felt was a lack of clothing. He looked down at himself prepared for the worst because this was Gabriel after all and just because they were in public did not meant he wouldn’t end up buck ass nude.

He was in a skirt. well, not really a skirt, Sam recognized a kilt when he saw one. But the real problem was that that was about all he was wearing. Leather kilt leather boots and a thick leather strap across his back that held a sword too big to be practical. Sam wondered if all the leather was supposed to be a message.

“And who am I supposed to be?”

“Conan the barbarian.”

“Of course.”

Sam took a breath and figured it could be worse. At least everyone else was in costume as well so he didn’t stand out so much, even if he was getting looks from people who were passing by. One girl came up and held out a camera.

“Hey, nice costume, can I get a picture?”

Sam shrugged and she took a few steps back to get all of him in the shot. She waved a hand “Do a pose.” He had no idea what to do so he just stuck his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. She took the picture, thanked him, then disappeared into the crowd. Sam looked back at Gabriel and noticed where his eyes were lingering.

“Got to say Sammykins you make that look good.”

Sam blushed. Now that he noticed it Sam wasn’t the only one whose outfit was flattering. Gabriel’s skin tight latex was doing an incredible job of cupping his ass. Sam swallowed and looked away.

“So what do we do now?”

“We’ve got some time to spare. Little Red will be at the moondoor event tonight, I’m positive. Until then we can hit some panels, get souvenirs, anything at all.

Sam looked around, for once out of his depth.

Gabriel turned to Kevin. “You got a preference?”

Kevin looked up at Sam but the hunter just shrugged. “Well,” Kevin pulled out his schedule. “They’re doing a panel on the mechanics of space travel in half an hour?” He put it out there as if he was sure they were going to turn him down but Sam nodded and Gabriel tucked his arms through both of theirs.

“Let’s go.”

 

~~~><~~~

 

Four hours later Sam had to admit that he was actually having fun. Gabriel was still pouting that Sam refused to sign up for the costume contest but other then that the angel was practically bouncing; pulling them all over the convention center. His enthusiasm was infectious. Kevin had mostly opened up. He was still staring at things but it was now with a grin of his own. Even Sam was grinning and if it was partially because Gabriel kept winking at him and then shaking his ass, well he wasn’t at fault.

Gabriel yelled out and raced over to another deadpool cosplayer. “Deadpool!”

The other guy didn’t even hesitate. “Deadpool.” And they were off, doing… something. Sam didn’t even know.

They headed to the larping room early because Kevin was clearly in a daze and Sam’s instincts weren’t reacting well to all the prop weaponry. It was a conference room off to one side and there had been a panel in here earlier as evidenced by the fact that the folding chairs were still being moved around. The tables from the front were now scattered around the room. A few people were set up near the entrance with sheets of paper for characters and a signup list.

Sam rolled his shoulders and set the swag-bag he’d somehow managed to acquire down by one wall so he could stretch properly. Kevin followed his example then slumped into a chair. At some point the grin on his face had turned a little loopy and his eyes had gone soft. Sam had to admit, Gabriel had been right. They, and Kevin in particular, had needed this. Sam himself was on edge with adrenalin. Flying high with none of his usual outlets.

Gabriel nodded toward the signup table, and Sam followed him in that direction. His eyes caught on a red haired girl who seemed to be one of the coordinators. Gabriel had called his contact Red… She looked up.

“Charlie?”

Her face went white and her voice came out as a squeak. “Sam?”

“Wait,” Gabriel interrupted. “You two know each other?”

Sam nodded. “You know Charlie?”

“Well she wasn’t going by Charlie then.”

She held out a hand to silence them. “The last time I saw either of you I had to disappear, so just tell me now. Is something here trying to kill us all?”

Sam considered that. “No more than usual.”

Her shoulders drooped and she let out a breath. “Okay. Just had to make sure. She looked between them. “I mean of all the places, and you two, together.” She shook her head.

Sam looked down at Gabriel. “Why do I sense that this is a story with a terrible ending?”

Gabriel put on his most innocent look. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Another volunteer came over and looked up at them. “New players?”

Sam shook his head. “No I just need to steal Charlie for a moment.”

The red head waved the volunteer off. “I’ll be right back.”

Kevin looked up as the three came back over to where he was sitting. Charlie pulled over a chair of her own. “Okay here’s the deal. I’m practically hosting this event so I can't vanish for too long. You’ve got ten minutes to lay out whyever it is you’re here before I go back to my normal life.”

Gabriel snorted. “Normal?”

“Okay my incredibly geeky and yet out of this world awesome life.”

The angel nodded “Yeah that’s better.”

“We need your help.” Sam said, bringing them back on topic.

Charlie’s eyes narrowed.

“Not help like last time.” Sam held up a hand then ran it through his hair. Gabriel bumped his shoulder and stepped in where Sam couldn’t find the words.

“Did you see booth 621?”

Charlie bit her lip looking up at the ceiling. “Which one was that?”

“Supernatural booth? Black Impala?” He fished around in one of his own bags and came out with a paperback novel. When Sam saw the title he dropped his face into his hands and groaned. Supernatural: Tall Tales. Gabriel passed over the book and Charlie skimmed through it.

“Wait, these are about you?” I saw some references but I didn’t think.”

Gabriel answered for him. “Yep, they’re actually the Winchester gospels. Dean’o and Sammy here stopped the apocalypse. With a little help from myself of course.”

Sam punched Gabe in the arm.

“Ow, what?”

“Help? You were pretending to be dead.”

“Well you used my plan.”

“Oh yeah, because that made Lucifer so much easier to deal with.”

There were almost literal sparks dancing between them as Sam and Gabe locked glares.

“Oh, my god. You two are fucking.”

Sam broke, and a blush started to cover his neck. “What, ah, we…”

“They are.” Kevin confirmed.

Sam was suddenly having a very hard time finding actual words, because he’d really tried to keep it discreet since they’d picked up Kevin.

Kevin gave Sam a dry look. “You really think I wouldn’t notice how Gabe crawls into your bed every night despite the fact that he doesn’t need sleep?”

“That’s, we never actually…” Sam stammered. Because it really wasn’t fair if he got accused of fucking Gabriel when he hadn’t been able to reap the benefits.

Gabriel nodded. “Sambo’s right. We’ve only never actually fucked with you there. Dream sex really doesn’t count and he refuses to let me in the shower with him.

“Dream sex?” Charlie leaned forward. “This sounds good.”

Sam brought down his hand, cutting through the air between Charlie and Gabe. He was red as a sun-ripened tomato and it spread a good way down his chest, which everyone could see because he still wasn’t wearing a shirt. His voice, though, managed to come out steady.

“We need your help reestablishing the hunter network. Communication, lore, that kind of thing. There used to be places hunters could go, people they could call, but the last few years have changed a lot of things.”

Charlie leaned back in her chair and considered them. “Okay, just one question.” She put a finger to her lips and Sam nodded gesturing her to go ahead. She pointed between Sam and Gabriel. “Who tops? Because my first thought was Sam but he’s clearly got you wrapped around his little finger and--”

Sam groaned and Gabriel broke into a laugh, his grin splitting his face.

“Charlie.” Sam pleaded.

“Okay, okay,” She held up her hands in surrender. “Look, if it’s just computer stuff I’ll help but I want to see the full contract before I sign. Tonight I’ve got the LARP, and I’ve got most of tomorrow scheduled for panels so we can talk on sunday. You guys got a room yet?”

Sam shook his head.

“Oh burn. You’re not going to find anything cheap anywhere near the con.” She considered for a moment, then nodded to herself. “Look, you can crash on the floor of my room but I don’t want to walk in on anyone doing the nasty, and I get the bed. You guys can fight over the pull out.”

The volunteer from earlier wandered over and hovered. Charlie acknowledged the girl with a nod then turned back to the group.

“So, you guys staying for Moondoor?”

Kevin opened his mouth and started to answer at the same time as Sam started to shake his head. They both stopped and glanced at each other. Kevin looked away first.

“Do you want to check it out?” Sam asked quietly.

“It’s fine.” Kevin said, still not meeting anyone’s gaze.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Sorry, he’s not normally this shy. Con virgin.”

Charlie took a second look at Kevin who was now definitely glaring at Gabriel. “Really? Congrats. Come on kid, all are welcome in Moondoor. I’ll hook you up.” She pulled Kevin to his feet then looked at Sam and Gabe. “What about you?”

Sam shook his head. “I think I’m done for the day. I’m gonna find some food and a bed.”

“Okay. I’ve got a room at the Hilton across the plaza. I called in to let them know I was here but didn’t have time to pick up a key. They should have my number on file so just tell them to call me and I’ll confirm so you can check in.”

 

 

<><><>

 

 

Gabriel perched up on his toes and leaned over the counter. “Hey we’re here to check in for Charlie Bradbury.”

The clerk behind the counter looked caught between smiling back at Gabriel and pursing her lips at the fact that he was trying to check in for someone else. Sam turned away and hefted the bags. By this point he wasn’t worried that Gabriel would be able to charm whatever he wanted out of the poor woman.

The angel turned to him a moment later with a key card. When they got to the elevator Gabriel hit the button for one of the top floors and Sam couldn’t even stop himself from sighing because honestly it was getting to be a pattern at this point.

Gabriel led him into a two bedroom suite with a view and he dropped the bags next to the couch in order to put his hands on his hips. Gabriel ignored him sashaying over to the windows and looking down on the city.

Sam was getting flashbacks to the last time they'd been in a room like this. At least it wasn’t the honeymoon suite this time. It’d been a while since Chicago and they hadn’t had a lot of alone time since then. A part of him wanted to go see if the beds here were as nice as the ones back then. Just lounge around order room service and fall asleep in each other's arms.

Another part of him was amped up like when he was on a hunt. Gabriel had been pushing at Sam all day. Taunting him with that skin tight costume. All day Gabriel had made sure that whenever he bent over to look at the displays, Sam was always right behind him. The convention floor had been packed, but rather than move at the same speed as the rest of the crowd Gabriel ducked between and around people like all that sugar he was always eating had finally effected him. They'd get boxed in by people and suddenly Gabriel would be pressed against his side from knee to shoulder, ostensibly to make room for someone.

It hadn't helped matters that all the fake weapons and costumes kept setting off Sam's instincts. There had been at least half a dozen times when Sam had reached for his knife before realizing there wasn't actually a threat.

“Charlie didn’t book a suite did she?”

“Well I couldn’t have us all sleeping on the floor could I? They were happy enough to give us an upgrade and I paid for it so don’t even think about bitching at me for it.” Gabriel turned and posed against the backdrop of the city lights. He rolled his shoulders and showed off the line of his neck before almost casually undoing the buckle of his costume's utility belt and letting it fall to the floor.

Sam had had enough. He stalked forward and pushed Gabriel up against the glass. His hand tangling in blond hair as Sam attacked the angel's mouth. When he pulled back Gabriel was as out of breath as he was.

“You’re doing this on purpose.” Sam growled as he shifted down to scrape his teeth across Gabriel's neck.

“Hey I was just having a little fun, maybe you should try it sometime.” Gabriel said, but his words ran counter to his expression and his voice caught as Sam bit down on his shoulder. Gabriel rubbed his hips into Sam’s and grinned that shit eating grin of his.

“Oh you want to pull that now?”

“Why not, think you can't handle it?” Gabriel lifted an eyebrow in challenge.

Sam's hand's found Gabriel's hips and lifted him off the ground, bracing him against the floor to ceiling window. Gabriel gasped and wrapped his legs around Sam’s hips, one arm wrapping around Sam's neck, the other catching at the strap of leather that crossed his chest.

“Maybe I should show you your place. Can't have you trying to lead me around on a leash all the time. I’m not some pet you get to dress up.”

“You sure Sammamish?”

Gabriel gave a slight tug on the leather belt. Sam pressed in further, lifting Gabriel higher and leaving him barely enough space to breath.

“Not some damn doll, Gabriel.” Even as he spoke he was sliding a hand up Gabriel's leg, squeezing his ass through the thin layer of fabric.

“Better prove it big guy or next time I’ll dress you up in a something a little sexier.” Gabriel let his eyes wander over Sam. The Conan costume left a lot of skin showing. “Well, if I can find one. Maybe I'll have to put on my own little fashion show since you refuse to enter the costume contest. Bet I could find one of those little Lolita uniforms or maybe put you in one of those skin tight cat suits, maybe a mini-skirt, or a -Oh fuck.”

Sam had shoved the end of one finger between the cheeks his ass and that was a sure fire way to shut him up, momentarily at least.

“You were saying?”

It took a moment for Gabriel to get his breath back. Sam watched him swallow twice before the angel managed the speak again, and Sam had to pull himself back from following Gabriel’s adams apple down his neck with his tongue.

“A little maid outfit, or maybe a schoolgirl uniform. A pair of little black mary janes and white panties.”

Sam's hips rolled, and okay, that was a kink he hadn't considered before, but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted hard and fast. Wanted to feel Gabriel under him, pound into him, shut him up with his cock.

He found the zipper of Gabriel's costume at the back of his neck and peeled back the tight red and black fabric that had been taunting him all damn day. Sam was finding the disproportionate amount of clothing completely unfair.

“Think maybe _you’d_ look better in the white panties. Soaked through, all wet and open for my cock.”

“Fuck Sam. Want you.” Gabriel rolled his hips, rubbing against Sam's abs.

Something sparked. Sam let his head fall back and moaned. God Sam was hard. Gabriel always made it so good and they weren't even undressed yet. He needed to feel the other man, but Gabriel was trying to set the speed again, and Sam had some very clear ideas on that front. He was going to get back at the angel for all the taunting he'd been put though.

Sam pulled back, dropping Gabriel so he was back on his own two feet and leaning heavily against the now fogged glass. The angel looked honestly shocked as Sam turned away. He even made a questioning little hurt sound as his hips made aborted little rocking motions against the air.

Sam let himself fall back against the couch. His arms sprawled out over the back and his legs spread so he took up the whole space. He tossed his head, getting his hair out of his way, and met Gabriel's molten gaze.

“If you want it. You're going to have to earn it.”

Gabriel let out a breathless little oh, and his knees gave enough for him to slide a few inches down the glass.

They hadn't ever played around with power dynamics before but the look on Gabriel's face right then was more then enough to tell Sam how much he was loving it.

“Get me wet.” Sam's voice was low and his words couldn't be mistaken for anything but a command.

It was Sam's turn to almost whimper when Gabriel didn't stand to cross the room, but fell to his knees and crawled. The kilt Sam was still wearing for some reason was made of soft but heavy canvas, even so, his dick was managing to tent it.

Gabriel settled between Sam's knees and looked up at the hunter, eyes glimmering through his lashes. Sam reached out, running one hand through Gabriel's hair, and guiding him forward.

 

Gabriel let a hint of his normal sarcastic grin slip onto his face. He leaned forward slipping his hands up Sam's legs and pushing up the fabric enough to duck under it.

Sam's hip's jerked up. As Gabriel's mouth licked a stripe up his dick. Not being able to see what Gabriel was doing made every touch that much more intense. Gabriel's back was bare, since he'd pulled the zipper on Gabriel's costume all the way down to his ass. Sam could see just the top of his crack and the way his shoulder blades shifted under the angel's skin as Gabriel tried to get better access. It was a beautiful sight, but Sam wanted more.

Gabriel was getting him wet that much at least was true but he was also teasing Sam with little touches to his balls and tiny scrapes of teeth on his foreskin.

Sam started to pull up the fabric then thought screw it, and reached for his belt. The kilt was a wrap around thing with snaps on the sides so he wouldn't even need to sit up to get it off. Unfolding the fabric was like unwrapping a present, and even though Gabriel had to realize what he was doing he didn't stop.

When Sam could finally tangle his fingers in Gabriel's hair again, the trickster looked up at him with wide innocent eyes.

“And what do you think you're doing?”

“What you asked?” that sparkle was there behind Gabriel's gaze. He knew he was pushing it again and wanted to see what Sam would do.

Sam bared his teeth. “I don't think so. Are you going to stop messing around or do I have to show you how it's done.”

Gabriel shivered again and licked his lips. “You might have to show me.” he leaned forward and kissed the tip of Sam's erection. His lips were open and already red. He didn't look nearly as wrecked as Sam wanted him.

Sam ran a thumb over his jaw until Gabriel opened his mouth. The hand in Gabriel's hair pulled him down until Sam's cock was as deep as Gabriel could take it. Sam held there for a beat then pulled out and thrust back in.

Normally he would have been terrified to do anything like this, the idea of hurting his partner was just too much. He'd never forgive himself. Gabriel though was a different matter. It was impossible for him to hurt Gabriel, and everything he did only made Gabriel moan louder. Every time he pushed Gabriel only upped the anti. 

Gabriel hummed around his length, sparking a flood of need and love and lust and all the emotions that he normally didn't let himself feel. Sam rocked up into Gabriel's mouth. It was so good. He wanted more, wanted it to never end, and for once he let himself take. He thrust until he was panting. He could come so easily like this. Maybe pull back and paint Gabriel’s face, that gorgeous red mouth of his. That spark though, the spark that felt like Gabriel and made him want to pull the angel close and drown in him. That spark was glowing, burning brighter with each touch and Sam wanted to see how good it would feel if he kept fanning those flames.

Sam looked down, meeting Gabriel’s molten gaze. “Strip.” He pushed one of the bags onto the floor where Gabriel could reach it. There were condoms and lube somewhere in there he knew. Gabriel started to pull back but Sam tightened his hold on Gabriel’s hair. “I didn’t say stop.”

Gabriel had just the head of Sam’s cock in his mouth, tongue playing with the slit. When he realized what Sam intended he moaned again.

It wasn’t as much of a striptease as it could have been. Sam didn’t have the best view, and Gabriel was too desperate to just have his clothing gone. But the attempt was there anyway. Gabriel stretched as the fabric peeled away, arching his back and wiggling his ass. Sam fought to keep to the shallow rhythm he had going since he’d given the order.

When Gabriel had finally kicked his costume aside he reached for the bag, then paused. He looked up at Sam through his eyelashes playing coy and innocent even as he sucked extra hard on Sam’s dick.

Sam snorted, tugging as Gabriel’s hair. The angel was terrible at acting demure. “Get yourself ready.” Only then did Gabriel let his hand dig into the bag.

Gabriel slipped with the lube, covering his whole hand rather then just his fingers, but then he was reaching behind himself. Sam couldn’t help bucking up into Gabriel’s mouth at the sight, and then again when Gabriel shuddered and moaned.

“Condom.” Sam managed to gasp.

Gabriel scrambled for one, trying to tear at the rapper but his fingers were too slick. Sam took it, tearing the packet open with his teeth. Gabriel pulled off Sam’s cock, and Sam wasted no time in pulling him into a desperate kiss. Gabriel took the condom back, rolling it onto Sam’s dick with his slick hand and giving it a few good strokes to get it properly covered with lube.

Gabriel’s own cock rubbed against Sam’s hip. Every bit of skin was like a magnet for Sam’s hands. Every touch made him gasp, the blood in his veins sing. Gabriel scraped his teeth over his collar bone, nipping at Sam’s neck until Sam pulled him around for another soul devouring kiss. He didn’t care about points he might have wanted to prove before. Now the only thought in Sam’s lust fogged mind was more. More of Gabriel, inside, together, until there was nothing else in the world.

“Want you to fuck me. Want to feel you. Sam, need you, please.” Lightning and mercury, the words etched themselves into his bones. Gabriel’s voice in his mind was like star fire and silver trumpets. It was a red hot ball of light running from one end of his spine to the other, looping through every spot Gabriel was touching in the process. Sam moaned, he’d never been this turned on.

Sam didn’t need a second invitation. He pulled them around until Gabriel was leaning back against the arm of the couch, legs spread with Sam between them. He leaned over the smaller man, pinning him down and securing his lips once more as Sam pushed in. It felt more then good. It was the planet’s aligning and stars igniting. It was Gabriel.

Sam barely had enough coherent thoughts to grab Gabriel’s cock before they came nearly in unison. Sam caught Gabriel’s lips pouring out everyone he was feeling.

When he could finally breath again Sam pulled them over and cradled Gabriel in his lap on the clean end of the couch.

 

~~~><~~~

 

“God Gabriel,” Sam said a few minutes later. He was still breathing heavy. “You’re incredible. I’ve never felt anything like that.”

Gabriel hummed softly. The afterglow was only just starting to fade but something about Sam’s words were sending out warning signs.

“You did something there in the middle didn’t you. I heard your voice. I don’t even know how to describe it. It was like I could feel everything. I guess that’s what I get for fucking an angel.” His tone turned thoughtful. “I wonder if Cas gives Dean that kind of treatment.”

Fuck, Gabriel hated it when things came back to bite him. The little guilt tree he’d been nurturing came into full bloom.

“I kind of doubt it. Cas’s better at managing his power levels then I am.”

“Is that what it was?” Sam sounded lazy but his expression was interested, and that meant it was time to come clean because once Sam got ahold of an idea he never let go.

“Kind of, but not really. It’s… Sam I need to tell you something.”

Sam rolled over onto his side and propped himself up enough that Gabriel had his full attention. “Yeah?”

“Well, you know how after I came back my power levels were pretty low, and then with the leviathan gunk and covering our tracks I had to use a lot of power?”

“I remember. That’s when you promised not to use your powers.”

“Yeah, well I was actually a lot weaker then I told you.”

Sam put on his ‘this is serious time and nothing is going to distract me’ bitchface and sat up. Gabriel sat up beside him, wincing a little from their earlier activities. He stalled by grabbing the box of tissues off the coffee table and cleaning himself up a bit. Sam took the box when he was done but his eyes said Gabriel wouldn’t be able to dodge the situation for long. Eventually Gabriel took a breath and started.

“Okay, it’s like this. An angel’s power levels are generally about ten times stronger than your average monster. If a werewolf has ten danger points then Cas for instance would have one hundred. Archangels are that much stronger than regular angels. If Cas had 100 points, I’d have 1000, thats on a good day, fully rested, top of my game. Except to dodge Lucifer I had to dump a hell of a lot of power. I was down at Cas’s level when you sprung me, maybe less. By the time we got to Chicago I was down to maybe 40 points.

“Now, that’s still enough to kick ass but understand, that’s four percent of my total, and I’ve never been good at managing my power levels. Honestly I don’t think you understand how amazing Cas is when it comes to working with basically nothing. He’s the Macgyver of angels.”

Sam shifted two muscles in his face and made Gabriel feel guilty all over again.

“Anyway. When you pulled the stunt with the ring. I had to talk you down and that required shields which required power. I was done, nothing left in the tank. I would have ended up human except then we hooked up and sex has a lot of power in it. So I kind of tapped into that power to give myself a little boost; enough to keep myself from going mortal. I was going to say something except that week was kind of crazy and then we picked up Kevin. I kind of figured you’d want to talk about things before we announced anything relationship wise so I kept holding my tongue. And it wasn’t like you weren’t willing to give the energy.” Gabriel tried for a smile and made a lewd gesture.

Sam’s expression went through several emotions ranging from worry to fear to anger.

“So, what? You were feeding off the sex? Is that all this was to you?”

“No not the sex exactly. You, the energy of your soul during sex.”

Sam held up a hand. “Wait, you were tapping into my soul? And you didn’t think I needed to know that?” Sam pushed himself off the couch and stalked to the other side of the room. He ran a hand through his hair, turned back took a few steps, then turned away again. He took a breath then hissed it out as if he couldn’t find words.

“Look it’s not as big a deal as it sounds.”

“Not a big deal? Gabriel this is my soul we’re talking about. I know how dangerous messing with souls can be. And it’s not a big deal?”

“Sammy, I --”

“Is that what happened tonight? You slipped up and now you’re trying to play it down because I’m not dead?”

“No, Sammich please.”

“Were you ever going to tell me, or was this it for you? Just a convenient source of power until you’re fully charged again. The pagan god’s almost virgin sacrifice. God you even said it. You wanted your fix. Well you got it, are you happy now?”

Gabriel was perched on the edge of his seat, watching Sam pace and shout. At any other time he’d have enjoyed a naked and passionate Sam, but now he was just frozen, locked in place by Sam's words.

“No,” He managed to get out between numb lips. “It wouldn’t have done me any good if it wasn’t real. Sam, please. I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

“Damn right you should have.” Sam shouted over him.

Gabriel flinched back.

Sam's hands clenched and unclenched. He spun putting his back to Gabriel “Fuck, Gabriel, do you even get it? This is, this is wrong. I can’t even look at you right now.”

Gabriel took the out and ran, because apparently that was the only thing he could do right. His wings caught at reality and he vanished.

Sam turned to look at where Gabriel had been sitting. He ran a hand over his face, through his hair.

“Fuck.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

Kevin woke to the smell of coffee.

He and Charlie had gotten in some time around two in the morning. Since Charlie was the queen she’d had to stay to make sure everything was cleaned up properly after the event. Kevin hadn’t been all that surprised when they’d ridden up to the room Gabriel had texted them and found more than the single queen bed Charlie had boasted. He would never be able to articulate how grateful he was for the separate bedrooms, especially when they tripped over the bags that had been abandoned in the entryway.

Despite the lack of sleep Charlie was surprisingly enthusiastic. She’d put the suit’s coffee pot to use, before making a run to the continental breakfast down in the lobby; returning with an armful of muffins and bananas.

By that point Kevin was mostly coherent. He’d finished scribbling down his dreams. That night they had mainly featured Cas. There was one Cas that fought his way past a rawhead, only then the rawhead had stumbled back to it’s master who was also Cas and groveled at his feet.  Kevin would have discounted it as dream logic if it didn’t have the pressing weight that he’d come to associate with visions. He needed to ask Gabriel about it.

Only, there’d been no sign of life from Sam and Gabriel’s room. Even when he’d knocked and said there was coffee. No grumble to let them sleep or anything more incriminating. Neither of them had stumbled out to the joint bathroom for a shower. After living in such close proximity for weeks Kevin knew his companions habits.

Something was wrong.

Kevin picked at his muffin, huddled on the couch as Charlie laid out panel schedules on the table and explained the importance of getting a seat early. He stood, letting her voice trail off. The bags were still in the entryway.

Something made him walk over and pick up Sam’s bag, hefting it over to the closed door of the second bedroom. He knocked, but there was still no response. A check of the handle revealed that yes, it was unlocked.

Kevin covered his eyes and pushed the door open enough to shove the bag inside. “Me and Charlie were going to head downstairs soon.…”

No answer.

He tossed the bag inside and waited for the soft thump to elicit some kind of response. Nothing. With extreme caution he lowered the hand from his eyes.

Sam was sitting on the edge of the big bed, wrapped up in one of the complimentary bathrobes and staring at his hands.  The room was dark apart from the strip of light Kevin was letting in. He couldn’t be sure but he thought he saw Sam’s expression twitch between frustration, betrayal, pain, anger, always returning to neutral a second later. there was an empty bottle on the bed next to him.

“Sam? You okay?” Kevin let the door swing open, taking a step inside. Sam looked up when the light fell over his face. He seemed lost.   

“Where’s Gabriel?” Kevin’s voice was weak and he knew it, but the weight of the question was enough without trying to make it casual as well.

Sam’s hands became fist’s in the blankets. The bottle rolled softly, then fell onto the carpeted floor. Sam didn’t even seem to notice.

“Are you okay?”

Sam blinked then cleared his throat. “Go ahead and have fun with Charlie. I’m going to call Garth. See if he’s got any more leads.”

Kevin looked down at his feet, and bit on his lip. After a moment he nodded. He didn’t comment on the deflection. He trusted Sam. Whatever had happened, he had to trust him. Kevin left the door open as he retreated back to the main room. He just shook his head when Charlie asked what was up.

It took Kevin a while to get back into the mood of things, but Charlie was a force of nature. It was impossible to stay pensive when she was radiating enthusiasm. There was a panel about a show he had never watched followed by a short line so Charlie could get things signed and more wandering around on top of what they had done yesterday. When Charlie grabbed his arm, jerking him to a stop in the crowd of the dealer’s room, his first thought was that she’d spotted another souvenir that she had to go coo over.

Then he saw her face. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted slightly. Fear sparked from her like an electric current. Kevin followed Charlie’s gaze across the room trying to pinpoint the danger. Nothing looked out of place but by this point he knew that just because it didn’t look like a movie monster didn’t mean it wasn’t one. Plus, with all the costumes around, how would he even tell?

Pressing into Charlie’s side he asked, “What is it?”

Charlie hissed in a quick breath and started talking at warp speed. “Okay, so you know I met Sam and Dean when they were going after Dick Roman. Well there was this hard drive that I was supposed to hack into and I did and it had all this weird information that I thought was totally nuts until Sam and Dean showed up. Except it was actually about the leviathan, like all the ways to kill them and figure out who they are and a list of all the people who this guy knew were actually evil monsters and one of them was this reporter chick who I’m like %95 sure is over there interviewing some guy.”

Kevin looked in the appropriate direction and saw what she meant. A youngish asian-american woman in a polished suit and her hair up in a bun was holding out a microphone to an overweight man who was probably more famous than he deserved to be. As Kevin watched she turned back to the camera and made a closing remark.

“And there you have it. This has been Gloria Jane with KZPZ news, Back to you Fred.”

“You’re sure she’s one of them?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

“What do we do?”

Charlie was starting to hyperventilate and Kevin wasn’t much better. The cameraman waved a hand and Gloria relaxed slightly, looking around. They froze as her eyes caught on Charlie and narrowed slightly. Charlie’s hand became a death grip on Kevin’s wrist.

“Call Sam, and Kevin?” The Leviathan took a step in their direction. Charlie’s voice skipped up a few octaves and it was nearly a scream when she cried out, “RUN!”

Charlie turned as she spoke and pulled him into the crowd. Kevin was tight on her heels, letting her lead while he fought to pull out his phone. He hit the speaker button and started speaking as soon as the light turned green.

“Leviathan, Help.”

Sam answered with barely a pause. “Where are you?”

“Dealer’s room. It’s chasing us.”

A single beat of silence while Sam processed. Charlie tugged him around a group of cosplayers. Behind them there was a yell that started out amused, then turned to fear and pain.

“Get to the car. There’s Borax in the trunk. I’ll meet you there.” Sam was in battle mode. Kevin could hear it even through the bad connection, and it eased the the knot of fear in his chest and lent speed to his legs.

Charlie had heard and took a sharp turn. Another scream echoed from behind them. A display was knocked over. They weren’t the only ones running now, but the crowd was confused, like spooked animals that were just following the herd without knowing what the threat was. Charlie was fast, and she managed to stay on the edge of the wave of panic, pushing past people before they registered what was happening.

Kevin threw himself at a set of double doors, shoving at the push-bar and fell out into a hallway that only had a scattering of people. Beside him Charlie looked back and forth, orienting then grabbed his hand again and hauled ass away from the main mass of people. They had a nearly clear run towards the parking structure. Problem was that while less people meant less potential casualties, it also meant less barriers in the leviathan's path.

The monster burst into the hall after them, nearly tearing the heavy security door off it’s hinges. It oriented on them and launched into a doubled over, inhumanly smooth run.

Charlie lost her bag and didn’t even look back, just plowed into the next set of doors and launched them out into the california afternoon. A tight corner and they were leaping the curb dodging the ticket booth for the parking lot and up the ramp to the higher levels. The impala was parked up on four. Kevin ignored the burn in his legs. The creature was gaining.

At the top of the ramp Charlie hesitated, and Kevin nearly ran into her. Only then did he realize that she didn’t actually know where Sam had parked. He dodged around her taking the lead, but it had cost them time and distance.

The leviathan jumped the end of the ramp as they rounded onto the third level and the Impala came into sight at the other end of the building. Charlie let out a cry which was echoed by the creature behind them.

They were dead. They didn’t have enough time to open the trunk and Kevin didn’t have a key in any case, but even with his rational brain screaming his legs put on another burst of speed. He hit the side of the car, fingers scrambling over the black paint. Beside him Charlie whimpered as she yanked at the door and found it unyielding.

“Done running?” the creature asked. It came to a stop a yard or two away, grinning like a shark, it’s teeth already looking more pointed then they should be. It turned it’s gaze on Charlie. “You know; I’ve been fantasizing about what I’d do to those Winchesters if I ever ran into them, but I figure you’re a decent second place.”

“Who, us?” Charlie had her back pressed to the impala. She was shaking slightly but her voice managed not to squeak.

“Let’s see, the girl who helped the Winchesters and the Prophet? Yes, you. I’m going to enjoy ripping you apart. Maybe I’ll play a little dress up and see if I can draw out any of your friends. Make sure to scream, I want to remember this.”

Kevin closed his eyes tight. Charlie found his hand and squeezed until their hands were white.

“Take your own advice dickwad.”

Kevin opened his eyes to the golden tones of Gabriel’s snark. The archangel had his sword out and leveled defensively at the leviathan. Despite his cocky tone his expression was serious.  

“The prophet is under my protection and the girl is a friend. Run now, and I might not chop off that pretty head of yours.”

“An Angel?”

“That’s right sweetheart, so unless you’ve got another ten or twelve friends, you might want to take me up on that offer and run while you can.”

Her head went back and for a moment Kevin thought she was going to bear her teeth, until he realized she was laughing. It was a terrible parody of a true laugh, with far too many hissing sounds. He shivered and Gabriel centered himself in his stance a bit more, knuckles going white on his blade.

“You think you stand a chance against me? Do you even know what I am?”

“A one trick, has been?”

“My kind was old when you were a mere hatchling.”

“Too easy, Insert the age joke of your choice here.”

Kevin could hear the smirk on his face but the confidence was only surface level.

“Borox, in the trunk!” Charlie shouted, yanking on the latch again. With his spare hand Gabriel raised two fingers and snapped.

 

~~~><~~~

 

It was like the starting gun to a race.

The Leviathan charged Gabriel, black blood oozing out to create claws around her hands. Gabriel brought up his blade in a textbook block and counter that only failed to disarm his opponent because she wasn’t holding a traditional weapon. Charlie threw open the trunk of the impala and cursed the complete lack of any kind of organization.

The leviathan let out a strange shrieking battle cry and twisted, It’s body going fluid like some kind of dark mercury to escape Gabriel’s next slash. Gabriel pressed in forcing his opponent to stay on the defensive, not that it was doing much good. Every cut he opened closed moments later. Moreover, Gabriel’s reach was only half that of the creature. If he wasn’t as fast as he was the fight would have been over with the first exchange of blows.

Then Gabriel stepped in too far. The creature wearing the face of Gloria Jane spun backwards, avoiding the blow and reversing their positions. Gabriel was uncharacteristically silent, completely focused on the fight, so for a fraction of a second he was caught off guard when the creature smirked and turned, aiming at Charlie and Kevin.

“No.” He screamed at the same time Charlie called out--

“Got it.” and yanked a gallon jug out from under the other assorted weaponry. The jug came up, and through pure reflex Charlie put it between her and the oncoming claws. The plastic ruptured, soaking Both Charlie and Kevin with the industrial grade chemical.

The leviathan threw itself back wincing and howling in pain as it’s skin boiled. It wasn’t enough to really take it down but more then enough to provide an opening.

Gabriel lunged in, plunging his angel blade up under the floating rib in a move that would have killed human, demon and angel alike, but not apparently, this creature. It just howled again and convulsed violently enough that Gabriel’s blade was ripped from his hand. It rolled to all fours only stopping when it hit a car parked across the aisle. The angel rocked back on his heels torn between finishing off a downed opponent and leaving the two humans defenseless again.

Gloria heaved and coughed up a pool of black sludge onto the pavement. It’s form rippled, eyes glazing, going full black like a demons before it reached for the blade. It was at an awkward angle but the monster managed to get two fingers around the handle. It convulsed again and the blade slipped out an inch and a half. The burns from the Borax were just starting to fade as it pulled the blade all the way free.

“Too bad little angel. I’d say that you fought valiantly and all that but really, that was your best chance to kill me,” she waggled the blade. “And you wasted it.” Her smile spread baring her teeth.

Gabriel’s grin returned. “Is that so?” Again Gabriel raised two fingers, and this time the monster knew enough to brace itself.

It was a risky move, but Gabriel needed a weapon and he couldn’t just grab his angel blade back. The leviathans was uniquely resistant to Angel mojo, but there were beings whose whole purpose was designed to fight the monsters in the dark. He snapped his fingers and moved his charges to the back seat of the impala, while at the same time opening himself to the trickster deity that he had been holding back ever since he’d been resurrected.

The pagan gods had overstepped their bounds by saying they were equal to his father, but they had their place. Heaven and the angels were created to guide and protect human souls. The leviathan didn’t care about souls only the flesh that housed them. To counter them and all the other horrors that threatened from the dark, The gods had risen to power. As Loki, child of giants, the Liesmith, harold of Ragnarok. The trickster could more then stand on equal footing.

He garbed himself in green and black, because screw it he had liked those movies, and they had increased his fanbase by like a thousand percent. Finishing off the look by shaping a golden spear out of the air.

“You are little more than a beast to me, monster. You should know your place.”

Loki took aim and launched himself forward. The point of his spear buried itself in the pavement when the leviathan managed to roll to the side. It hissed at him like some kind of lizard or snake, and struck out with just as little warning.

Loki twisted, pulling his spear free and trying to block. It caught at his shoulder before he was able to throw it off, and the blade like claws went straight through his new magic coat. Cursing in old norse he kicked out and forcefully regained some distance. Loki spun the spear across his body, using both ends as if he was practicing staff fighting.

The leviathan was fighting recklessly. Seeing an old enemy manifested before it had apparently pushed it over the edge. It would have been enough to turn the tide in Loki’s favor if he wasn’t fighting at less than half strength.

The angel side of him still had just enough influence to stop him from tipping over the edge, pulling in the waiting power his trickster side had access to. He wanted to, knew the power was his by right. but the trickster was also greedy enough to hold back, play the long game and take a chance at claiming the whole prize.

Again the beast lunged at him only this time it caught the speed of his swing and tried to grab his spear even as the shaft connected with it’s shoulder. The beastly strength couldn’t completely stop the momentum, but it redirected it enough that Loki was forced to go flip over the shaft or let go of yet another weapon.

Loki spun in the air, planted his feet on empty space and kicked off. The spear point caught the beast in the shoulder, going all the way through and embedding in the concrete beneath. Except the wound was too close to the skin and it ripped free before Loki could close the distance and finish it. The leviathan rolled, finally on the defensive, and Loki pushed off, using his spear as a vaulting pole.

He should have hammered his heel into it’s back, rode it to the floor and finished it with a slice across it’s throat. Instead it turned and Loki had launched himself into it’s maw. A trap that he had been too confident to predict.

Bringing up his knee managed to save Loki’s leg but the creature had him now, teeth locked around his hip. Loki screamed, in pain and cursed in old norse.  He scrambled trying to strike at it’s eyes or ears anywhere that might stun it long enough to give him a chance to escape. Even if he was dead to rights he wasn’t going to admit it without a fight.

The Leviathan howled and opened it’s jaws in shock. Loki didn’t hesitate, taking the opportunity that was presented to him and rolling away. He snatched up his spear again and pointed it back at the creature, doing a silent inventory of his injuries.

It was bad. He would have to waste a lot of magic if he wanted a quick healing and he wasn’t sure he could afford that. Without it though, his right leg would be left in shreds and he’d be unable to stand, which would cost him the battle in any case.

Then he saw what had made the monster let him go.

Sam had found his angel blade, coming up behind them as they struggled and pierced the monster’s neck. They were grappling around it now; the human wasn’t nearly as strong but it had already been weakened and every time it tried to lunge at Sam it only buried the blade deeper.

They needed to behead the thing, now. That was the only way it was going to stop fighting.

Loki rolled onto his side, sighted along the shaft of his spear and shouted out a warning.

Sam let go of the angel blade, trusting in his friend without thought. A blade of hardened air sliced through the monster’s neck and upper shoulder, cutting off it’s head and an upraised arm for good measure.

Loki collapsed and sucked in one gasping breath after another. He was done. If Sam couldn’t handle it from there they were all done and there was really very little he could do about it. Practically his whole stockpile of magic was gone. Anything he did have would have to be reserved for healing.

He closed his eyes and waited for things to go one way or the other.

 

<><><>

 

Sam fell back at Gabriel’s cry.

The blast of power he’d created sliced through the leviathan's neck and it’s head was sent flying through the air, rolling until it hit one of the impala’s tires. Sam knew he only had seconds before the thing started to reform. He grabbed up a garbage bag since the trunk was open for some reason and swept the head up in it. He wrapped the package in a second bag, then when he couldn’t find the Borax, had to satisfy himself with shoving the whole into an industrial size rock salt canister that he hadn’t had time to refill.

Only when the cap was firmly secured did he pause and take in the scene.

Gabriel was flopped out on the ground. Apparently he was in a Loki costume today, which was typical. Sam hadn’t expected to see Gabriel again but it figured that he’d just been off fooling around.

No. Sam shook his head, Gabriel had been here, had protected Charlie and Kevin until he could get here and in the end had delivered the finishing blow. They needed to talk, but now wasn’t the time. Gabriel had earned a reprieve from his anger for the moment. He set the salt canister on the Impala’s bumper.

“Gabriel?” Sam asked.

Gabriel lifted a hand and waved, then let it fall back to his chest. “Still alive.”

“Kevin, Charlie?” they were sitting backwards in the impala’s front seat, twisted around to watch the fight.

“Did you kill it?” Kevin asked.

Charlie shook her head, “No way, you can’t kill those things.”

It’s as good as dead at the moment. This’ll hold it until we can deal with it properly.” Sam tapped the tin. “Still, we should probably get out of here. Charlie, do you have a car?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you take Kevin and get our things from the room? I’ll load this thing into the trunk and then we should all head to.” Sam ran a hand over his forehead. Garth’s boat wasn’t properly equipped and it was really too small to deal with something like this. “Bobby’s I guess. I’ll call Jody. Hopefully she’s had enough time to get the place set up.”

“Ah, Sam, no offense but the last time me and Kevin wandered off on our own we got chased by that thing. Can’t you come with us?” Charlie’s voice wasn’t squeaking it was just a little faster paced than normal.

Sam looked down at the body and then over at Gabriel. The angel was slowly getting to his feet. He looked wrecked. One of his legs was torn up all the way to the bone. He seemed to be healing it but it wasn’t pretty.

“Charlie, where’s your car?”

“Two levels down and on the other side of the structure.”

“Gabriel, think you can handle going with them? You should only have to stay in the car.”

Gabriel glanced up. His eyes were molten gold and somehow darker then they should be. “I can manage.” He picked up the spear, planted the end of it and used it to lever himself to his feet. He was pale, as if he’d lost a lot of blood, but his expression said that he wasn’t going to let that stop him. “Shall we go?”

Charlie hesitated before opening the door. Kevin took her hand and pulled her past the headless corpse that was still oozing black blood. Gabriel was clearly using the spear as a crutch.

Sam shook his head. He couldn’t let himself worry about them right now, not when he had a leviathan corpse to deal with.

 

<><><><><>

 

Loki kept up his guard until after they had gotten to Charlie’s car, loaded into it and gone down to the loading area of the hotel. Kevin had run up to the room to throw their things into bags while Charlie had checked them out. Luckily none of them had had time to get settled in so both of them were back in the car before long.

Loki let himself slump over in the back seat when they got onto the highway. He listened with half an ear when Kevin called Sam and told him they were gone, then called Garth and told him to meet them at what remained of Bobby’s salvage yard. After that the car was quiet.

They hit a drive through when the sun was low in the sky. They’d been driving through the desert most of the day and still wouldn’t reach Bobby’s before the following afternoon, and that was if they drove through the night.

None of them wanted to be around too many people after that morning, so instead of a diner they had silently agreed to eat in the car. Which then turned into eating at an empty rest stop when Charlie declared her legs were going to fall off if she didn’t get a chance to walk around.

Loki roused himself enough to shift to a picnic table that was bathed in the yellow light from over restrooms door. It was the only source of light apart from the millions of stars that were visible out here in the middle of nowhere. He dropped his food on the worn table and eased off his leg. He’s been working to heal it, but it was slow going.

Kevin hesitated, then brought his tacos over and sat across from him. “Gabriel?”

“Loki,” He corrected automatically, then shook his head. “Gabriel is fine.”

“Okay.”

Loki could see the argument playing behind his eyes. “Ask.”

“You just seem different.”

Loki let his head fall to one side in a gesture that was almost angelic. “That’s right, Sam never explained did he? Archangel isn’t the only title I can claim.”

Kevin looked over him again. “Than, this is…”

“Flip side of the coin, Loki the pagan trickster god.” He leaned back slightly then let one of his trademark smiles grow over his features. “I’ll tell you the whole story if you do me a little favor. Repeat after me.” he rattled off a string of norse.

_“Jeg lover meg selv å Loki. Mitt sverd og ferdigheter vil være som hans til en tid som han ser passe for å frigi meg eller jeg seiler til bredden av Valhalla.”_

Kevin frowned then stumbled over the unfamiliar syllables. When he finished Loki signed and let his shoulders drop a fraction. Kevin shivered and zipped up his coat.

“What? What was that?”

“You just swore yourself to my service. No big deal. Just means I can use a bit of your energy to heal faster. That leviathan really was a bitch.” He took a drink of his soda and unwrapped one of his own tacos. Kevin just kept looking at him, the wheels behind his eyes moving again.

“Basically, the short version is that I took off back when Michiel and Luci had their dust up. At the time Loki was still coming into being as a deity, so I took the mantle. I am Loki as much as I am Gabriel. Except a few years back my brothers got it into their heads to start the apocalypse. I nearly died and had to dump what was left of my power into hiding myself, until Sam found my hiding spot. I’ve been hiding out with him until I get my powers back. That fight took a lot out of me or I wouldn’t be pulling from you now. I was almost at the tipping point too.” He sighed, put upon, and took a bite.

Kevin finished his own mouthful and asked, “Tipping point?”

“Yeah, I don’t fit. I should be dead. The universe doesn’t like things that don’t fit so it’s trying to figure out who and what I am. If I needed to I could tap into Heaven or the power of Loki at any time, but once I did so, that would be it. The other half of me would die. So far I’ve stayed ahead of it by using equal parts Pagan and Heavenly magic, balancing things out. The plan was to wait until my batteries were full enough and then claim both sides of me at once. Gonna be a while though, now.”

“Oh,”  Kevin looked down, then over at where Charlie was talking on the phone. They’d been checking in with Sam every few hours. He took another bite then looked up. “And getting power from me doesn’t help?”

Loki snorted. “Kid, you feel cold? Maybe a little sleepy? That’s all I’m taking from you and only because my leg is so messed up right now. It’s a drop in the bucket. Maybe if Sam was willing to donate but I’m fairly sure I screwed that up.” He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll manage.”

Charlie came back over and tossed her keys up in the air a few times. “Hey kid you got a license?” Kevin nodded. “Great, you’re taking the next stretch, I need a power nap.” She passed him the keys and headed for the car. Kevin stood and dumped the wrappers in a trashcan. Loki stood as well.

“Kevin.” The prophet turned to look at him. “ _JEG fri deg fra ditt løfte._ Thanks for the pick me up but we don’t need you drifting off at the wheel.” Loki slipped back into the back seat of Charlie’s car and leaned back, closing his eyes.

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

Jody already had the remains of Bobby’s panic room set up when Sam arrived. Garth had driven through the night to meet them and arrived about an hour after Sam. Charlie and Kevin had taken less dangerous speeds and arrived that evening. Jody listened to the scattered explanations and after a worried look at Sam, had hustled Charlie and Kevin back to her place in town. They were both too drawn out to make more then a token protest. Gabriel, had dropped the Loki guise and made himself scarce among the burnt out husks of the cars while Garth and Sam bound up the leviathan in the panic room.

A part of Sam wanted to find the angel, talk to him, confront him about everything that had happened. Again he forced the impulse down. The fact that he’d shown up to defend Kevin and Charlie was a comfort; it meant he wasn’t gone for good. It would have to be enough for now.

Another part of him wanted to sleep. He’d been too on edge to sleep with the head of a leviathan in the passenger seat and the rest of it wrapped up in the trunk. He settled for a power nap and about a gallon of coffee once Garth said they had the creature set up.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, torture never was; even when the wounds kept closing over and the black blood made everything seem more than a little unreal.

Sam wasn’t a torturer. It was Dean who had been the one to plunge in the knife or make the other guy bleed. Dean had been able to turn off the part of himself that cared, even before Hell. After Hell it was like that switch had rusted in the off position.

In order to do things like that Sam had to pull up all his rage and blind himself with it. Blame all the tiny failures and twists of fate that had wrecked his life on the creature in front of him. It was a mental outcry that he aimed at another creature. It wasn’t anything he could keep up. He’d burn out after a few hours and want to crawl into a corner, because most often the person he really wanted to hurt was himself.

This time wasn’t much different. There was a lot of blame and frustration and emotional pain to be spread around. He reminded himself of everyone he’d failed to save. All the people who had died because of these monsters and everything he’d personally lost. He didn’t fight it when his vision went red, he embraced it. The blade in his hand became an instrument of justice.

He went through everything they knew would hurt leviathans: small doses of Borax, bleeding the creature, he cut off it’s head then let it fall back into the creature’s lap, and waited for it to regenerate.

Garth watched with a camcorder. He took notes without a word and took away the tools when they fell from Sam’s hands. Eventually The creature gurgled, and it's black blood turned a sickly shade of grey. It stopped moving after that.

Industrial cleaners in an open wound until the blood boiled, and cutting off the head would stop it for maybe half an hour.

 

…

 

Sam came back to himself some time later, out behind the panic room in the gravel lot. He was crouched down behind the Impala’s back tires and drenched head to foot from the rain that was coming down in sheets. He shivered.

He knew what had probably happened. His memories were a bit of a blur but it was clear enough to get the gist of it. They’d found out how to hurt it. How to kill it. He’d done the job, then walked out, abandoning the tools and the black blooded corpse to walk out into the rain as if he wasn’t internally screaming.

Sam was cold, but he didn’t want to go back in. He didn’t want to be around Garth but he didn’t want to be alone either. He didn’t even know what to feel about Gabriel. He was drained and limp. More than anything he just wanted someone to wrap their arms around him and tell him everything was going to be okay. Gabriel, he wanted Gabriel to be that person but the wound was still jagged. Gabriel had flat out lied to him, and even Sam would admit that he had a mountain of trust issues after everything between Dean and him, not even mentioning Ruby.

The hand that touched his arm was hesitant, barely there as if the owner wasn’t sure if comfort would be accepted. Sam looked up into Gabriel’s gold eyes and fought back a sob.

“Hey there kiddo, you doing okay?” Gabriel’s voice was soft, barely a soothing murmur over the rain. Sam leaned into his touch and Gabriel seemed to take that as permission, because he leaned in and wrapped an arm around Sam’s shoulders. He was talking still but it wasn’t anything important, just more sounds meant to sooth and prove he was still there. The rain let up, then stopped as Sam leaned into Gabriel’s side, and took a slow ragged breath.

It took him a few minutes of just breathing before he wanted to open his eyes again. When he did, Sam realized the rain hadn’t actually stopped, it was still coming down in waves, it just wasn’t falling on them. There were the shadows of wings above them, the edges of translucent feathers etched in tiny sparks of lightning. Sam gasped then turned to look at Gabriel.

“Yeah I know. Don’t use my magic, but this isn’t technically magic so I’m ignoring the rule in favor of keeping you from catching your death.”

Sam let out a little half-broken laugh, and let himself slump back into Gabriel’s side.

Gabriel let him sit there for a while. Eventually he leaned in and kissed Sam’s forehead.

“We should head inside. You need sleep.”

Sam nodded but didn’t move. Gabriel smiled and let out an amused chuckle, then proceeded to help Sam to his feet. He put Sam in the passenger seat of the impala, then ducked into the building. A few minutes later he was back, and slipped into the driver seat. Sam knew they should be talking, He was still angry and as grateful as he was that Gabriel hadn’t completely vanished, he was also still royally pissed. Or he would have been if he could spare the energy to move. He should have at least asked where they were going, but when it came down to it, he found he trusted Gabriel, whatever their destination was.

They pulled up outside a house he vaguely recognized and Jody answered the door. Sam let himself be guided onto the bed, but refused to let go of Gabriel’s hand when the angel moved to pull away. Gabriel didn’t say anything, just perched on the bed beside him and started humming about pina coladas and getting caught in the rain while stroking Sam’s hair.

Sam let himself drift. He wasn’t sure he could sleep, he was that exhausted. He ended up drifting off anyways.

Sam woke the next morning and was disappointed to find Gabriel’s spot empty, and cool to the touch. He headed for the shower, washing the previous day off his skin and settling back into himself through the monotonous ritual. When he entered the kitchen Gabriel was at the stove in a frilly sunflower apron and Sam had no choice but to stop and watch him bustle about with the frying pan.

Eventually Kevin came in and Gabriel noticed him standing in the doorway. The angel smiled. It wasn’t nearly as confident as his usual one, as if he wasn’t sure yet if he was allowed. Sam smiled back and properly entered the room.

Garth came in when they were almost done with the eggs. He looked like he hadn’t slept a wink and Sam bit his lip. He could guess what the guy had been doing while Sam had been in bed. Gabriel passed Garth a plate without comment.

“Is it…?” Sam started.

“Torched,” Garth confirmed. “and I sent out the first word to the network. The video is out there now so people will know what to look for and how to handle it.”

Sam nodded. “Thanks, and sorry I kind of abandoned you there at the end.”

Garth shrugged. “No prob, man. I understand.”

 

The silence returned for a moment until Kevin looked around and coughed conspicuously. He offered a notebook to Sam. Sam took the dream journal and opened it, skimming through the most recent entry. Dean’s name jumped out at him a half dozen times. He seemed to still be in purgatory, but he’d found a safe place for once, a tree of some kind. Sam let his shoulders ease a fraction more.

Everything had happened so fast. He hadn’t had any time to look into getting Dean out of there.

Gabriel took the notebook next as Sam started to clean the table so Sam didn’t see the angel’s expression until he turned around at his exclamation.

“Fuck.”

“What?” Kevin asked. He looked from the notebook to the way Gabriel was now biting his lip going over the words with meticulous care.

“Gabriel?” Sam asked.

“I know where he is.” Gabriel’s voice was distant as if he was only bothering to communicate because the lesser beings couldn’t handle the colossal magnitude of what was happening.

“In purgatory…”

Gabriel shook his head. “No not just purgatory. Purgatory is huge, bigger than the other realms put together. This tree is, okay, it’s complicated. There are stories about what happened to the tree of knowledge after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. I think the prophet here just found it. And if it is the real tree and Dean is there, hell if he’s even close…” Gabriel looked up at Sam and his face was awestruck. “I can open the way.”

Sam’s brain froze. He had to force himself to keep breathing. Distantly he heard Garth clear his throat and he forced himself to listen.

“So you know how to get into purgatory?”

Gabriel nodded he looked as numb as Sam felt.

“Then why didn’t you try it before?”

“Because purgatory is huge and I’d need to stand at the gate to keep it open. I couldn’t defend myself and I couldn’t go in to search and leave the gate open behind me. The power drain alone would be huge. If we, I, tried it without knowing where to aim. We’d all end up dead, or let all the monsters from existence back out onto earth. It’d be worse than opening a hell gate. It’d be a hell gate and the leviathans and the apocalypse all piled on top of each other.”

“But now you know where to aim? Because of this tree?” the note of hope in Sam’s voice almost hurt.

Gabriel waved a hand and seemed to come back to himself a bit. “The tree’s more than just what the story says. Even the angels aren’t sure of everything it’s supposed to do. The norse called it the world tree and I know it made it into a few other religions as well. There are stories that tie it in with how angels are born. I’ve been there all of once back when dad was still around, and let me tell you the energy that thing gives off. Well, it’s one of the few landmarks I could home in on without a problem. If it is the tree.” He emphasized the last sentence, holding up one hand fingers spread.

Sam found his voice again. “How can we know?”

Gabriel shrugged, shaking his head, then looked back at Kevin. “Think it’s time I taught you a little lucid dreaming. We’ll see if you can pull anything more out of the visions tonight.”

Sam was holding on to the table so hard his knuckles were turning white and his nails were biting into the wood. Gabriel noticed.

“Hey, kiddo, it’s okay. I can’t even prep for the spell until the new moon and were going to have to find the right kind of lay line. This isn’t going to be a one day thing, but time in purgatory is fluid. If Dean’s safe now, then he’s managed to do better than he had any right to. He’ll hold on a little longer.” Gabriel reached out and took one of Sam’s hands squeezing softly.

Sam nodded. He didn’t like the idea all that much but waiting was all he could do, or at least… “You said we’d need to find a ley line?”

“Yep, and I’ll need some stuff, nothing too hard to find but it’ll help smooth the way. Think you could get me some raw pewter, and jasmine?”

Sam nodded and stood. Moving would hopefully keep him from thinking too much. Hopefully then it wouldn’t hurt so much if this turned out to be yet another dead end.

Gabriel wrote up a list of things for Sam to go find then locked himself in with Kevin and drilled him on meditation techniques for the rest of the day. Three days later Kevin had a sketch of the tree and Gabriel nodded confirmation.

“It’s the tree of knowledge all right.” Gabriel offered up a small smile and Sam returned it. He could hardly believe it.

They actually had a way to get Dean back.

 

~~~><~~~

 

The new moon was sixteen days away. Garth and Sam found a suitable lay line running through an abandoned frontier town on day two. With five days to go, They had all the spell components Gabriel had requested.

It was quietly decided that they would go and camp out a few days early. They being Sam, Garth and himself. Charlie and Kevin were staying back with Jody. Charlie was still building up a network and resource system hidden in the under-layer of the internet, and someone needed to spread the word and keep things organized if their rescue attempt went to hell.

For his part, Gabriel was quietly freaking out. He didn’t have the power to pull something like this off. He was at maybe twenty, twenty-five percent of his total power and that was after feeding off Kevin and doing the absolute minimum for his leg. It wasn’t nearly enough. Sure he’d be able to get the gate open but the amount of time he would be able to hold it open could be counted in minutes. He was doing everything he could to hoard the power he did have and gather as many scraps as he could, but to be honest, he was terrified.

The angel in him was worried about letting out the monsters of purgatory, weakening the fabric of the world by opening the gate at all, and the danger those in his care would be facing. His trickster side, Loki, was worried that he wouldn’t be able to hold out, that he’d burn up, and Sam would end up dead or trapped in purgatory or ripped to shreds by the monsters waiting on the other side of the door. So yeah, apparently it didn’t matter that he was still in the doghouse where Sam was concerned, he had fallen hard for that ridiculous human.

Sam hadn’t really spoken to Gabriel since the big fight. There was a word here or there, but always about Dean or Kevin’s visions or what they would need for the spell. Gabriel went out of his way to make sure they were never alone in the same room. The idea of joining Sam in bed was out of the question.

Which only lead to more freakouts as he tried to think of a way to power himself up other then tap the source he’d been tuning himself to for the last few months.

The drive to the ritual site was torture. Gabriel had agreed to ride along in the impala if only to save the sliver of power it would take to fly.  He’d given up the front seat to put himself as far from Sam as the small space would allow but his plan had backfired since Sam kept looking at him in the rearview mirror.

The moment they arrived Gabriel threw himself out of the vehicle and started walking. They had arrived in the mid-afternoon. Enough time to set up and get the lay of the land before the height of the new moon the following day.

The town had been small. Now it was overgrown. Yellow-green grass nearly two feet tall, whispered in all directions, occasionally interrupted by corps of oak trees. There had once been a river but the town had died when it had been rerouted nearly seventy miles upstream. Now only the wide shallow sandy bed was left to mark it’s trail. That was where they would do the ritual, just where a patch of trees ended, and with the remains of the town behind them.

The town was nothing to boast about. The buildings that were still standing had become grey and weathered things. There was evidence of coyotes or wild dogs scavenging around. The only structure with a roof still on it was the old church. There were sparrows nesting in the rafters and the pews had all been knocked over or piled up at some point. Not even good enough for firewood anymore. Sam and Garth set up the bed rolls there, under the worn but still recognizable alter.

The angel in Gabriel nodded his approval in seeking the favor of God in these final hours before such a monumental endeavor. The trickster side of him just wanted to throw up.

Gabriel avoided the hunters until nightfall. One of them had started a fire and was making a pot of cowboy coffee in addition to the potatoes that were wrapped in tinfoil in the coals. Garth brought out a packet of hot dogs.

Gabriel stuck around long enough to cook a pair of them before going off to eat in the only other building that hadn’t half collapsed. It might have been a bar or an inn or a town hall or maybe a little of all three. It was more drafty then the church because at some point a tree had half fallen through the roof. The tree had only gotten as far as the second floor though so Gabriel was willing to ignore it.

He didn’t go back when he had finished eating. Instead he sat on the carpet of moss that had claimed the old floorboards and looked up through the hole the tree had made, at the brightening stars.

 

<><><>

 

“You okay?” Sam leaned around the doorway. It was late, Gabriel had thought his absence would go unnoticed. The hunter had his backpack in one hand, which explained what he was doing wandering around. He must have needed to grab something from the car.

“What? Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Gabriel stuck the sucker he’d been toying with back in his mouth before he could start babbling.

“You haven’t made any snappy comebacks or innuendoes for, I don’t know. A long time.”

Gabriel tried to smile but he wasn’t sure it came out. “Well, serious times, serious measures and all that.” He tried to shrug and turn away, but Sam came to sit in front of him. He tossed his pack aside, leaned back against what might have once been a bar and looked up. The stars were the only real source of light and Gabriel was glad Sam wouldn’t be able to get a good look at his expression.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

Gabriel laughed self-mockingly. “Your would be boyfriend finds out you’ve been hiding things from him. The two of you have a big fight in which he says he can’t even look at you. Wouldn’t you?” Gabriel leaned back until he was propped up on his elbows. “I’m the last archangel, and as little as I care about what my family thinks, Kevin is still my responsibility. The kid deserves better than me, but since I’m all he’s got I can deal with the you hating me thing until this is settled.”

Sam let out a breath. He let his head fall forward then ran a hand through his hair.  “About that.”

Gabriel tensed. He wasn’t looking at Sam to but he could feel the hunter react. He could still run. He didn’t have to deal with this. Not tonight. Not with what they were going to try tomorrow.  

“If anything happens tomorrow. I don’t want...” Sam trailed off then took a breath. Gabriel sneaked a look. Sam had his head tilted back again, eyes reflecting the starlight. “I don’t want any regrets.”

Gabriel came up with a dozen responses and immediately discarded them all. The silence started to stretch and Gabriel only realized he was staring at Sam when the hunter looked at him back.

“Gabriel?”

Gabriel looked away, biting his lip and playing with the sucker again, rolling the stick between his fingers.

“Talk to me. Please.”

Gabriel pulled up his knees and stuck the sucker back in his mouth. It was mostly a stick now, but it was a comfort thing. What did Sammy want him to say? That he was sorry? That it wouldn’t happen again? That it was all a mistake and he’d be out of the moose’s hair after they finished this last job?

“Say something. Gabriel.” Sam’s voice was sharper this time. It sparked a response before Gabriel really knew what he was saying.

“I’m sorry.” He took a breath and forced himself to go on despite the crack in his voice. “The first time I seriously didn’t mean to, but I was falling and there you were to catch me. I told myself over and over I was going to say something, but everything happened so fast. We never actually talked about what this relationship was supposed to mean. Hell, we didn’t even have the condom talk. And It wasn’t like you were at a good place for it; trying to fix everything and Dean missing. I kind of always figured that once I had my powers back you’d tell me to hit the road.”

“No.” Sam shook his head.

Gabriel shrugged. He took a deep breath, reeled in the emotions that were threatening to swamp him and gave Sam the facts.

“Sex is an act of creation. Both Pagan gods and Angels can use it as a source of power. I wasn’t feeding off you or your soul, not directly. You acted as an amplifier, while I acted as a catalyst. You fed energy into me, just sex, nothing supernatural beyond the fact that you have a very powerful soul. I refined that energy and sent it back to you. You then doubled the energy and sent it back. You did it instinctively. It’s the same thing that happens between any two lovers, that’s why it feels so good. Normally the power get’s focused into creating a new soul, a child. In this case I gathered it up instead, rather than let it go to waste. Since, you know, neither of us are actually capable of that... at least in these vessels.”  

Sam was looking at him. Gabriel finished his info dump and shut his trap.

“So what then? Anyone would have been good enough?” Sam finally asked after the silence had stretched into minutes.

“I said lovers for a reason Sammykins. Emotions play a big part in that kind of thing. Technically I could have gotten a boost from anyone but the effects would have been negligible, and the sex wouldn’t have been anything to speak of.”

Sam’s back had straightened. “Is that the only way for you to gather energy? Kevin mentioned something about when your leg was injured.” Sam was falling into research mode, but at least that was better than straight up anger

Gabriel shrugged. “I have a claim on him so I used an old fealty right to draw from him temporarily. It’s a lot slower but in the long run it adds up. It ties me to the other party as well though so it’s not really an option I can pull out all the time.”

Sam nodded like it was some vital piece of information. Gabriel just looked back up at the stars, waiting for the next question, or for Sam to come to whatever conclusion he was working up to.

“What are your energy levels?”

Gabriel whinced. “Not good. I’ve been picking up what I can. Little things here and there but the fight and having to heal myself, that took up most of what I had gathered.”

“Like last time.”

“No need for a smoke screen but yeah.” Gabriel decided that he needed a drink. His throat was dry and his mind was far too clear to be having this conversation.

He heard it when Sam took a breath for his next question, but when it came Gabriel wasn’t sure he could credit his own senses.

“What do you want from me?”

Gabriel blinked into the darkness, trying to read the hunter’s expression. “I don’t, I, What?”

It was Sam’s turn to search the stars for help. “You said you kept expecting me to tell you to get lost. Well I kept expecting you to just, poof. I like you, but we don’t exactly have the best history. When I found out you were syphoning my energy or whatever I figured that was the only reason you had stuck around as long as you did.”

“No.” Gabriel shook his head. “No” He looked down at the moss between his shoes, then rolled onto his knees and crawled over to Sam. The hunter didn’t stop him from crawling into his lap, hands tangling in his shirts.

He tossed the sucker stick off into the dark and looked at Sam straight on. “Sammybear. I will never leave if you don’t want me to. When I first saw your soul I thought it was so amazingly bright, and now after everything you’ve been through. After all you’ve endured. Your soul is like a fractal, Sam. I could spend days following the complexities and only find more to explore. And that’s not even mentioning your willingness to help people, the way you smile, and put up with all the crap I pull. If I hadn’t been in love with you before, seeing you come back to life like this would have certainly pushed me over the edge.”

Sam leaned forward and found his lips. The kiss was awkward and they ended up mostly just pressing their foreheads together.

“I never wanted you to leave. I’m sorry. I guess I might have overreacted.”

“No, I should have just manned up and told you. It was my fault.”

Sam let out a breath in something that was almost a laugh, then swallowed around a lump in his throat that could have been tears. Gabriel brought his hands up to Sam’s neck, cradling his head.

“I love you. Never doubt that. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Sam kissed him again. This time he had a better angle and it went a bit deeper. Sam sucked in a breath when he pulled back, and Gabriel let out a quiet groan. He let his head fall to Sam’s shoulder, forcefully stopping his hips from rocking into Sam’s crotch. He couldn’t help his pavlovian response to a kiss like that, especially when it was Sam and he hadn’t thought he’d get that ever again.

“Damn, I want to fuck you.”

Sam swallowed and Gabriel could feel it pressed into his neck as he was.

“Do it.”

Okay gabriel could not have heard that right, because as far as he could remember it wasn’t his birthday or any of the other fun holidays. He pulled back, despite how much he had been enjoying licking at the pulse in Sam’s neck.

“Say that again.”

“Do it. I want you to.”

“Oh.”

Sam gave him his ‘Well, what are you waiting for, or do I have to spell it out for you.’ bitchface which Gabriel couldn’t really see too well in the dark but that didn’t mean he didn’t know it was there.

“I don’t have a condom.” Gabriel admitted, “Or any lube, and I don’t really have the power to spare.”

Sam huffed and leaned back against the old wood again. “Well we’ve been kind of lax about the protective thing. I kind of figured you were immune or something. I was clean before.” He waved a hand between them. “But I’m not willing to get fucked without lube.”

“You’re actually serious about that?” Gabriel’s voice may have been a bit awed but to be fair Sam had topped in all their encounters so far.

Sam’s eyes were reflecting the stars again. “Yeah. I was. I mean most of the guys I’ve been with expected me to top but…”

“Sammich.” It came out as a groan. “Fuck it. Maybe we can find some oil or something.”

Sam laughed and Gabriel was fairly sure it was the best sound he’d heard in days. Gabriel let his eyes trail down Sam’s chest, his legs kicked out in front of him. The pack he’d dropped when he came in sitting ignored to his right.

Gabriel licked his lips. “You haven’t cleaned out your bag in the last few days have you?” Sam glanced down then shook his head, and reached for the pack. “Check the back left pocket.”

Sam pulled out a half a bottle of lube and a couple of empty condom wrappers. “Why do you know what’s in my bag better than I do?”

Gabriel shrugged and found himself looking at the ground. “Well, you know. Got to be prepared if you want to get any and I always want you so…. Plus I don’t need to sleep so putting things away after you drop off is the least I could do. Still no condom, you okay with that?”

“Yeah.” Sam tugged on his arm and Gabriel let himself be pulled into another kiss. This one both longer and more intense than the previous.

“You know.” Sam said when he finally pulled back. “If we’re really going to do this then, you’d get a boost of power anyway….” he trailed off.

Again Gabriel had to sit back and stare at Sam. “I don’t have to, the power thing.” He fumbled over the words but Sam was already shrugging.

“I hate that you didn’t tell me but I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t some of the best sex I’ve ever had. As long as it’s not going to hurt anyone, I guess I don’t mind.”

Gabriel blinked, then shut his slack-jawed mouth.  “How could I possibly have ended up with someone as amazing as you?”

Sam was blushing. Gabriel couldn’t see it but he could feel the heat of Sam in the dark. Sam rolled a shoulder and reached up to rub at the back of his neck. Gabriel took advantage, leaning in to catch the hunter in another kiss. He eased them both down until Sam was flat on his back on the bed of moss with Gabriel spread across his chest. Their groins lined up, and Sam broke off the kiss to groan outright. He spread his legs further, and Gabriel fit so well between them.

There was a spark and Gabriel could feel the circuit ready to link them. It just needed one more tiny push. “You ready for this kiddo?”

Sam nodded. He was biting his lip and his eyes were half lidded. Gabriel paused to admire him for a moment before leaning down to kiss the center of his collar bone. It wasn’t anything spectacularly sexy but the circuit was fueled as much by love as lust and Gabriel had put all his churning emotions into that one act. Sam gasped, his hips rolling up against Gabriel’s stomach. He swallowed and their eyes met.

“That’s what that is? You… I never realized.”

“You still okay with this?” Gabriel asked, nuzzling into Sam's neck.

“Yeah, keep going.”

Gabriel mouthed at Sam’s neck while he fumbled for the lube. Every little gasp and touch was like one more wave in the incoming tide. Gabriel had been half hard since the conversation had turned to sex but now there was no half about it. He wanted Sam desperately, and he could feel how much Sam wanted him back.

And they were both still fully dressed.

Gabriel pulled back and rested his forehead against Sam’s. He was already teetering on the edge, panting and if he didn’t get a grip now it would be over before it had really started. He felt the question in Sam’s thoughts before he wet his lips or started to take a breath.

“I’m good. So very good.” Gabriel started in on the buttons of Sam’s shirt. Sam shrugged it off. They leaned in for a quick kiss, as Gabriel tugged a the hem of his shirt. Sam caught him again as soon as he had it off and the skin contact was a drug in itself. Sam had the last of his shirt’s off by that point, and his pants open as a bonus. 

Gabriel laid Sam out on his side, slipping pants and boxers off as they went. He propped one of Sam’s legs up and slid one of his own into the gap. Gabriel tucked in behind and over him, wanting as much skin as he could get.Sam rocked back into him, just as eager to get things moving. Sam took the lube and let some dribble onto his fingers. Gabriel fallowed his lead helping to open Sam up since he had better access.

They moved in tandem, each picking up on the other’s intentions without needing to be told. The thrum of the circuit between them steady as a heartbeat.

Sam ended up rolling onto his stomach his hips angled up and his legs spread wide. Gabriel worked him over paying as much attention to the muscles of Sam’s ass and hips as his hole. Sam had a hand beneath himself not so much stroking himself off as squeezing to hold himself back.

Sam shifted just as Gabriel decided he was ready, rolling over and pulling the angel in. His hips were still angled up, and open, but he wanted Gabriel’s mouth. Wanted to feel his breath and press them together. He pulled Gabriel in just as Gabriel was lining up. They both lost their breath as the head of Gabriel’s cock slipped past the ring of Sam’s ass.

Sam was the first to recover, sucking in air like a drowning man and arching his back.His mind had gone white. The link between them was bleeding through every part of him, it felt too good. Gabriel could feel Sam’s trust and love, all of himself laid out and offered up. And when Gabriel didn’t move fast enough to suit him, Sam pulled him in and demanded that he fuck him already.

Gabriel let Sam set the pace because he was honestly not sure he could hold back his angelic strength just right then. Sam writhed around his cock pulling his pleasure out of him. He’d practically taken control of the circuit, since Gabriel wasn’t guiding it anymore. The archangel side of himself was glorying in the light of Sam’s soul, but as he looked down the trickster wanted more. Gabriel slid his hands up Sam’s chest, enjoying the flexing muscle until he settled over Sam’s Tattoo.

He put a bit of extra force into each thrust and Sam moaned his approval with glassy eyes and an expression of such bliss that Gabriel didn’t want anyone else to ever see. He sent his power into Sam’s skin, claiming not just the soul power that Sam had offered but the flesh as well. The ink over Sam’s heart changed, symbols for fire and magic weaving themselves around the flames as they became Gabriel’s horn.

Sam gasped at the rush of power and rocked up into him. “Gabriel.”

Then he came between them, eyes fixed on Gabriel and nearly glowing with the power he poured out into the angel. Gabriel caught at Sam’s skin, trying to hold on in all senses of the word. His head fell back light bursting from his eyes as his turn came. Gabriel sucked in a breath, claimed the energy, and collapsed onto Sam’s chest.

Sam managed to pull his jacket over them, before he gave in to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Sam watched as Gabriel carved symbols into the sandy soil of the riverbed. The ritual had to be done when the moon was as close to intersecting with the sun as possible, which meant they were waiting until evening. The patch of trees was representing the wild and the remains of the town were representing civilization, with the riverbed acting as a path between the two. The symbols Gabriel was carving would enhance that connection.

Gabriel climbed out of the riverbed and came over to where Sam was tending the fire. He looked down at the coals and nodded.

“Should be hot enough now.” Gabriel plopped a cast iron pot into the middle of the fire and dropped a lump of pewter into it. Gabriel leaned against Sam’s side as they waited for the pewter to melt, occasionally tossing in handfuls of herbs and muttering enochian over the smoke.

Sam felt good all things considered. The night before had been amazing. It had certainly put a spring in Gabriel’s step. Sam was honestly having a hard time keeping his eyes off the archangel turned trickster.

He didn’t know what Dean would say; and after last night and all the preparations that morning, he had no doubt he would get Dean back. That didn’t really matter though. He and Gabriel had finally found a balancing point. They would be able to move forward now, together.

Gabriel started to shift away and Sam caught him, dropping a kiss of the corner of his mouth. Gabriel was blushing as he pulled the pot off the fire and walked quickly back to the symbols he’d drawn. The molten metal flowed along the lines he’d carved and started cooling, locking the symbols in place.

It would take another hour or so to fill them all in and another half hour after that to be certain they were cooled. It would be worth it though, to strengthen the spell, and they had the time.

Gabriel tossed another log on their fire and prepped the pot for the next round.

“You know what to do?”

Gabriel had asked him a dozen times that morning. Like before Sam nodded.

“When the gateway opens I go through. You’ll aim the spell at the tree, and when I go through it will respond to my intentions. I’ve got Dean’s amulet and Cas’s old tie to help the spell pull me towards them. I find them and get out of there as fast as possible.”

Gabriel nodded and kept looking at the fire. “And if you only find one of them?”

That was the question that Sam wasn’t really able to answer. He took a breath. “I get them out.” he couldn’t go on, couldn’t say that if he only found one of them he would leave the other behind. Cas was as much his family at this point as Dean and it wasn’t like they could pull off a spell like this every day. This could very well be their only chance.

Gabriel nodded like he could hear Sam’s internal monologue, and stepped forward to prepare the next batch of pewter. Come to think of it he could hear Sam’s internal monologue… right.

Garth eventually got back from walking the perimeter. He would be handling the earth side of the defense while Sam went into purgatory. He’d driven down the road and put up some signs to discourage any random passers by to stay away.

An hour before the time window would open Gabriel made his way to the center of the symbols he’d set up and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed and became rhythmic. Sam could almost sense what he was doing, could almost feel the power he was drawing in and concentrating. Gabriel stayed like that for almost 40 minutes before he opened his eyes and sketched a door in the air between him and the forest.

“Sam, stand behind me. This is going to be a bumpy ride.” He started chanting, not in enochian. The language was rougher, less refined and somehow more appropriate. It was guttural, spoken out of the back of his throat and every other word sounded like a growl, a challenge.

Sam stepped up behind Gabriel, one hand finding it’s way to the small of Gabriel’s back. Despite the difference in their heights, any observer would have been able to tell who was the one in control.

Gabriel was radiant. Sam was catching the edges of the power with Gabriel focussing it intensely forward at the designated doorway. Phantom sensations raced across his skin, everything from wind to leaves to the brush of feathers.

Sam was ready to close his eyes when the door opened but instead of bright light the crack in the air was red. It bubbled, like smoke through a crack in a door that wasn’t there.

Gabriel’s chanting stopped. “Be ready. I’ll hold it open as long as I can.”

Sam crouched, ready to run.

Gabriel snarled and dug his fingers into the air. With a last angry word in that strange language, he tore apart the fabric of the world.

Sam didn’t give himself time to hesitate. With one hand clamped down on Dean’s amulet and Cas’s old tie he threw himself into the gap.

 

<><><>

 

Gabriel had built the spell to leverage as much of the natural energy of the area and put as little pressure on him as possible. Even then, forcing the gate open nearly made him cry out. Sam had given him everything but his power levels were still far from optimal.

Sam went through the gateway, breaking the final membrane and anchoring the portal on the purgatory side.

This time Gabriel did cry out. The trees he could see were darker, the air stagnant. He was looking into a world without the cycles of life to renew the land and everything had rotted because of it.

Sam was standing there on the other side. He turned drew the knife from the back of his belt and once he had got his bearings he started running. Gabriel could have followed his progress but that would have been another bit of magic that he just didn't have the energy to spare for at the moment.

The strain of keeping the gate open was building, and his magic was already failing. It wasn't even all that much effort, no that wasn't right it was an enormous effort but he was separated from it. He had braced the door open and he would hold it open for as long as he could. He didn't need to think about it. He just needed to hold his ground. Unfortunately that left his mind free to wonder how long he could keep it up.

In the past few months Gabriel had gotten very good at monitoring his power levels. He knew how much he could spare before he fell. How much would cause him to fall, and when the energy wold go beyond falling and start draining his life force. If that was what it took he would make that sacrifice, but it would only grant a fraction of a second at best, still if Sam needed it.

On the other hand the lower his power levels fell the more the host of heaven and the pagan lore called to him. The power was right there. Enough to keep the gate open for up to an hour if he needed it.

Gabriel panted, his breath was growing shallow. Now he wished he had spent the effort to watch Sam. He didn't know where the hunter was. If he was searching for Dean and Cas still or if he was already on his way back. It was hard to tell how fast time was moving on the other side of the portal. Normally the spiritual realms ran faster then earth but it wasn't always the case. How long had Sam been gone?

His energy levels dropped another notch. Maybe failing to concentrate wasn't such a good idea after all. The strain was bearing down on Gabriel. He had to hold the gate. Make sure Sam had a way to get home. His mind narrowed down to that one task.

The powers offered up to him were actually starting to look appealing. An archangel could have actually done something useful, or more useful then just slowly letting the portal wither away. He'd felt the power of Loki so recently, he knew there was strength there, enough to tear through the creatures of the black forest and emerge bloody with tales fit for the halls of Valhalla.

No, he couldn’t, but he was falling, he could feel it. There was so little of his power left. There was no sign of Sam. He couldn't hear him, couldn't see him on the other side of that shrinking portal. There were spots on his vision, he fought to push them aside, couldn't tell if the screaming was his own or something his mind had crated, a ringing in his ears.

Sam was coming, had to be, Sam would find their brothers and bring them home.

Except gabriel couldn't hold the gate anymore. It was closing and there was still no sign of Sam.

Well, in the end there had really never been any other option. No other road he could take. He’d known he was doomed from the start. Sam was his but that went both ways, there was nothing he wouldn't do for him. Angel or trickster? That wasn't really a question either, he had had fun as Loki, but the angels were his family and right now Sam needed a guardian angel not a bloody warrior fit to tear apart a realm in vengeance.

"Sam." He called out through the link, it was so small now, so hard to see. He wanted his shining hunter to leap out of the darkness and reach for him but there was nothing.

"I'm sorry."

He looked up, and said his name in the old enochian that god had used to call him into being. Gabriel.

The universe folded around him and the mantle of the archangel settled over him, old but still familiar. He spread wings that had been folded for centuries, casting them out like banners over the world. There was light behind his eyes and if anyone had dared to look upon him they would not have survived it, despite the vessel he was wearing. He considered discarding the vessel altogether, but it was at least familiar, and the bloodline had fallen.

Then the other angels were calling to him, asking if it was truly him. He lifted his horn and sent a call through the heavens. No one would doubt that he was truly the messenger of heaven. It was clear that much had changed in his absence, and he was ready to rise and bring the word and law of God back to his brethren.

“Not yet” a small voice whispered in the back of his mind.

Gabriel was about to brush the voice aside, but it persisted.

“Sam.” it whispered.

The gate to purgatory was sliding shut even as he turned back to it. Gabriel put out a hand and stopped it with a thought. He could sense one of his own beyond the portal and then there were the vessels of his brothers. He opened the portal all the way and sent out a summons.

Gabriel felt a broken presence answer and movement towards him. Gabriel crossed his arms, settled his wings around him. He would not be kept waiting.

When the broken creature fell onto the ground at his feet, Gabriel looked down at it with something like contempt. His little brother, Castiel, had torn himself apart, and entering purgatory had only enhanced the problem, digging into the wounds his brother already sported and pulling him literally to pieces. His grace had somehow become installed in Michael’s vessel, while his own vessel held the part of his mind that had come so close to falling once before.

That wasn't even the worst of it, as terrible as it was. There was some other piece of him, still behind in purgatory. That part was twisted, no longer anything close to angelic or even human, a true monster born of a twisted corrupted mind.

Gabriel sealed the gate locking it in with the other monsters. He would not allow it to corrupt his father's creation. Yet that left his little brother broken and lying unconscious at his feet, well, partially unconscious. The angelic grace of his brother looked up at him with proper devotion from the eyes of a vessel not his own. Sam to was fighting to stay conscious, though unlike the others he was not so injured.

"Bow your head." Gabriel said to the grace of Castiel and so it did, willingly offering up the other half of himself and Lucifer's vessel. Gabriel held out a hand and knowledge came to him with a thought. All the things Castiel had done in the absence of his brother archangels. Heaven was truly in shambles. He was needed more then he had realized. First though, before he set about righting heaven, punishment must be doled out.

He leaned forward and kissed the forehead of Michel's vessel. In a move faster then anything the broken creature could hope to stop, he reached in and tore out Castiel's grace, holding it in a firm hand so that the frayed threads would not drift into the either. Gabriel wrapped his power around the foreign grace encasing it in a flask that could not be opened by any but himself.

"Castiel, I take your grace and cast you out from heaven, for the crime of killing our brethren. Live the life you have sought to carve for yourself in your folly and should you ever manage to return to heaven you may beg for my forgiveness. May Father have mercy on you."

He looked skyward, his task done. Stretching his wings once more he departed earth and stepped towards the gates of heaven. They stood open for him with the host arrayed and bowing at his return. Heaven had an archangel to rule it once more. He took up Michael's vacated seat and declared his will. Heaven cheered.

 

~~~><~~~

 

On a forgotten patch of American countryside, Sam rolled over. Dean was still breathing he could see that much, and Cas looked terrible but the grains of sand around his mouth were moving. He coughed and sucked in a breath, sitting up with a groan.

He didn't understand what had really happened in those last minutes in purgatory and what Gabriel had just done. He didn't get it, his mind couldn't parse what had just happened, but he was the only one awake so he could react to the crazy later. Now he had to make sure Dean and Cas were alright.

"Garth?" he called out, hoping for some help but there was no immediate answer. He stumbled over to Dean and checked him over. When he was content that Dean was only a bit scratched up, he moved on to Cas.  

Cas was in worse shape but his injuries were mostly closed over at least. He wasn't going to bleed out before Sam could get him cleaned up.  

They would be alright. They were battered but they would get through this.

Someone called from the direction of the town, and Sam looked up in time to see Garth running in his direction.

“What happened?” He asked. “I saw the light show from the road? Where’s Gabriel?”

Sam looked around, then shook his head. “I don’t know.”

As Sam loaded the still unconscious Dean into the back of the Impala, he sent up a prier. He asked for Gabriel to help him, them. He asked for the man he loved to come back. He said that he didn't know what had happened, but that he trusted Gabriel, and as soon as he was sure everyone was alright he would find out. Sam somehow knew that this wasn't the end.

Gabriel heard the prier, but there was no danger facing those who bore his mark to call him back to earth. There was no need to answer.

 

<><><>

 

               

Kevin woke, scrambling for the notebook on his bedside table before he was even properly upright. The pen clicked and he paused. He held his breath for a count of five, focusing and clearing his mind as Gabriel had taught him. When he wrote his words were in a clear elegant cursive script, that outlined what had happened to his friends two states away.

He wrote the events as he had witnessed them.

Only when he was finished did he sit back and take stalk of what had happened. Dean and Cas were back, which was good of course even if Cas was human now. Sam was bringing them back to Sou Falls with Garth.

It was the last lines that he kept reading over again and again.

 

 

_As Sam turned over the engine of the impala, the tattoo over his heart began to softly glow. Sam felt the warmth, and rubbed at his chest but didn't give it another thought._

_Loki's mark burned._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo.....  
> Those of you who were around for Broken Mirrors will remember that I said I had an extra bit planed and then things kind of spiraled until I didn't have time to finish the full story and I asked if people wanted a sequel. 
> 
> Yeah I'm not even going to ask this time.
> 
> I realized about half way through this that it had turned into at least a trilogy, and more likely a full blown verse. I've got an outline and a first chapter of the next story which I'll be posting in the near future.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Pictures In Fogged Glass [Art for litra]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3384710) by [Symmet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symmet/pseuds/Symmet)




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